IFR

I would legitimately start enjoying this show if they stopped pretending they were adapting Jordan's Wheel of Time and went completely wild in this fashion. Just as the criminal seems like they are getting away, Nynaeve cracks the case Colombo style and dramatically narrates how the villain's "tell" gave them away.

@butterweedstrover I don't think anyone is going to shift your perspective on this, but considering the amount of disagreement you are encountering here, perhaps indulge the idea that your objections to the show are not a failure of the show, but that your interpretation of events is particularly unique and not common among the audience. Nothing wrong with that, of course. It's unfortunate that it damages your enjoyment of the show, but not everything is for everyone. At any rate, I personally only have a few objections to the show, but otherwise I think the writers are doing a splendid job of writing what is no doubt a very challenging adaptation.

I don't view it as the destruction of 5 episodes of character development, I view it as the consummation of 5 episodes of character development. I find it completely believable and natural for younger Alicent to transition to older Alicent. All the set up required to make it work was performed. I don't think I had to do any rationalization to make it work for me. It's like the time skip in The Godfather. At one point Michael Corleone was a war hero who was starting to get his hands dirty for the family, and then next we see him he's fully into the game. Every step does not need to be spelled out because enough set up was observed to easily infer the rest of the character development. I feel the same way with Alicent. It is absolutely believable that she became what she did based on her early characterization. I think Alicent is more sympathetic in the show than the book. By quite a bit. I think Daemon is way less sympathetic in the show than the book. Rhaenyra is roughly the same. I strongly disagree here. Her decision to have bastards was profoundly stupid. She is extremely short-sighted and self-serving, as Alicent points out. Every character but Viserys sees this, and I as an audience member see this. Her whole plot to get rid of her loyal husband to marry her uncle was emotionally damaging to a lot of people and caused the death of an innocent person - and was done completely out of her blithe, selfish desire. I think Rhaenyra is fun to watch, but I don't find her remotely likeable. Nothing about this scheme is brilliant. It's two self-involved individuals behaving selfishly and with total disregard for anyone but themselves. Well, I find them all to be awful, so I wasn't aware there was a right answer. Anyway, we are clearly viewing this show differently. You say you're watching one side get whitewashed and another side painted villainously; the show I'm watching is a bunch of horrible people I'd never want to know in real life doing horrible things in an entertaining fashion.

I can't say I agree with your take. Rhaenyra and Daemon had an innocent person murdered just so they could marry. It wasn't the person the audience are familiar with, but that hardly matters. Rhaenyra has been more diplomatic in her later years because, due to her very foolish and short-sighted decision to have bastard children, she's always at risk of being called out for her infidelity, with potentially terrible consequences to follow. Daemon has throughout the show been one of the more villainous characters. He hasn't lately done something extremely horrible like murder a spouse, but I certainly don't think of him as a moral character. Alicent has, through bitter years of isolation and learned mistrust, gone from a sweet and innocent character to someone much darker. But I think this has been a very good and clear evolution. Her motivations are understandable (even if they aren't agreeable). Maybe Alicent's actions recently are making her 'less good' than Rhaenyra, but I don't think any side is remotely portrayed as good. I really like watching these characters, but I find them all morally despicable. Anyway, the season's not over yet. There's plenty of time for Daemon and Rhaenyra to do horrible things. And of course the start of season two will be very interesting with how Blood and Cheese is handled.

This series was a pleasant surprise. I don't play video games often, but the series has piqued my interest in the world. However, I understand that the game is a monster as far as resource requirements, and I only have a simple laptop for the purposes of school. So I imagine it will be many years down the line before I get to it.

Yes, I figured this wouldn't be addressed, and it is a real annoyance. I'm glad with Harwin at least there were repercussions to his actions. It's perfectly believable for me. She's lived a sad life of isolation, and experience has taught her to mistrust. This is in addition to being married an old, sickly man from a young age. I can see her cynicism growing over 10 years. Furthermore, Rhaenyra has made it clear, in Alicent's eyes at least, that she is ambitious, selfish and impulsive, and could easily become ruthless to any opposition. Olivia Cooke's Alicent honestly seems like a fairly natural transition from Carey's Alicent.

I think this is becoming less of an insult than people think it is. Maybe burnt out, latter day D&D would write something like this. Early GoT D&D would have written circles around this kind of thing. I would say Littlefinger narrating his plans to two prostitutes is far less egregious than what happened in the wedding.

A 7 from me. The show has bought enough good will that I'm more willing to overlook the ridiculous parts. But it's becoming more noticeable. First Daemon as an action hero on the Stepstones, and now all the dramatics during the wedding. Moments like these weigh down an otherwise really good series.

A lot of this episode was good. However. That ending...it seems like the writers felt that the audience would get impatient with the slow moving character drama and decided to put a shocking scene in to keep the easily bored engaged. And it was awkwardly done. Cole beating someone to death in the midst of a wedding feast? Knocking over the king consort to be? And then the wedding vows being said not twenty feet away from a pool of blood? Come on, did HBO hire a Wheel of Time writer to doctor the end of this script? This is a mostly good show, but already it has made too many missteps to compare well with early Game of Thrones.

Your position is that Rhaenyra in this show has no power even with respect to commoners due to her gender? Well, all right. I naturally disagree, but I can see this is another debate that has the potential to be interminable since neither party will concede, so I suppose this is something else we simply won't see eye to eye on.

To make this situation comparable, you would have had to pursue her as an employer when she repeatedly said no. And had the power to have her executed. They are not the same in personality, and I never indicated they were. They are comparable in the consequences of refusal. Beria had people who rejected his advances arrested or put to death. Rhaenyra has the same power. At any rate, I think this topic of power and consent has become old and boring, and there is a clear and perhaps unbridgeable difference in opinion here. It may indeed be as Bard of Banefort suggests - a generational thing. This discussion is not an important matter of determining social policy, but a random conversation about a TV show, so I think it's fine to let it drop. I think this particular quote strays onto a different topic, so I will briefly address it. Martin doesn't focus purely on sexism, but he also explores classism and other forms of social stratification. Women are often viewed as property in his works, but class is still more important than gender. Rhaenyra could have any commoner flogged and executed at a whim (though if she did this often it would cause discontent). She has plenty of power.

If Cole attempted to seduce Rhaenyra with the mutual knowledge that he could use this information against Rhaenyra, that would be coercion too. What we see is that Rhaenyra is the favored heir of Viserys. She is mercurial and impulsive. She has the ear of her father, as we've seen many times. She ignored Cole in his many points of resisting her, and overrode his clear reluctance until he was more complicit. These are fictional characters, and so there is no real answer to what Cole actually thinks in this situation; we can only speculate based on what we've seen in this show. My interpretation of the scene is that this is something he would consider, because it does factor into the situation. As has been addressed, there are many conflicting thoughts by the actors, writers, director and creators as to what is going on here, so it's possible that no one considered the power dynamic, but it's also possible that it was considered. Regardless, it's a dynamic that I certainly see here. You may disagree. In which case I don't think that we'll find any profit in further discussion. The issue of power dynamics and coercive relationships is not clearly delineated by any means, which is why it has become such a problem in modern dynamics (since that is more a matter of conversation now). But I doubt any amount of discussion will let us see eye to eye on this topic, because a debate on topics of what constitutes a wrongful power disparity rarely finds agreement.

But not when the subject is their employee, which would be more the case for Cole. And I wouldn't even say that encompasses the power dynamic. It's more equivalent to when Lavrentiy Beria gave his interests a "choice". Obviously Cole is more willing than the women Beria preyed on, but the potential consequences of refusal are all the same. He could have risked the consequences of rejecting Rhaenyra, sure. Anyway, who is to say whether the suggestion of skewed power dynamics was intended or not by the writers and director? As has been observed, their own accounts of what is happening conflict. If it wasn't intended, it was an oversight because that skewed dynamic was present. If one party in a sexual interaction has control over the livelihood of another, this is coercive in nature even if the subject to the advancement is interested in sex. If the subject is of a more ambiguous mindset, then it's even more problematic.

I think it would be utterly foolish of him not to envision the consequences of saying no, especially since a part of him clearly does want to say no. But nothing is spelled out and it's left to the audience to interpret what is going on with the characters at the moment. Regardless of whether Cole does consider the power dynamic, it is an element that exists in this scene. Rhaenyra seems often selfish and willing to disregard others for the sake of her own interests. She is often cruel and vindictive (just in this episode, she seemed completely disinterested that someone was stabbed to death in front of her, and she told Daemon that the desires of the commoners were of no consequence). She also behaves rashly, and is willing to lie for her own interests. I find it perfectly believable based on how she has been portrayed so far that she would have a surge or resentment if rejected by Cole and proceed to some drastic action. Cole would be a fool not to fear the same.

I think it was a pretty nuanced and complex interaction (whether this was produced intentionally by the writers and director or accidentally). Cole clearly desired Rhaenyra. He was also more worldly and experienced than she. However, his vows were also meaningful to him. He acted with great hesitation numerous times during this sequence. More importantly, this wasn't a typical situation of your boss making sexual advances towards you. If Cole rejected Rhaenyra, it would be entirely possible that she would slander him to her father, jeopardizing his life (and it wouldn't be out of character for her either). This creates a highly coercive power dynamic, regardless of whether a part of Cole wanted to have sex with Rhaenyra. A lot of things were going on in this sequence. I think that's what makes it excellent.

They returned covered in blood from a boar attack. I think that would certainly count against such discourse. One could say that there should have been more concern for the safety of Rhaenyra, since she had been absent for an entire night, but I think it's been established well enough that she is wild and does this sort of thing often (no doubt more than most would with this personality type, since her adventurism is aided by having a dragon). And if the Kingsguard can't be trusted around women, what's the point of having them? Sure, the mindset would be that a typical male cannot control their behavior, but the citizens of this time take holy vows seriously enough that it means something. At any rate, I don't buy that it's reasonable to assume that this situation must have provoked gossip. I think that the show has established enough ground (everyone accustomed to Rhaenyra's adventurism, the Kingsguard's having made oaths, etc) for the scene to work. Your miles may vary and you might disagree and still think it's inconsistency, but I don't find that to be a strong or obvious conclusion.

It is interesting to compare the protagonists from this show and RoP. Both are flawed, impulsive characters, but I find that one works and the other does not. For Rhaenyra her impulsivity and selfishness tends to create many problems. She chafes against the expectations of duty, and has pretty poor judgment, such as her adventure in the city with her uncle, and sleeping with Cole (coercing him to break his vows). At the same time, that same impulsivity and selfishness did defuse the confrontation in episode 2 between Otto and Daemon. It's a consistent character trait of hers that can be a boon and a vice based on circumstances, and I think that is good writing. Galadriel too is a character who is impulsive and selfish, and shares common features with Rhaenyra. They are both extremely entitled, and allow this to largely motivate their characters. With Galadriel it feels off, because it's intended as a part of an arc to bridge her current character with the LotR character. Grafting a bildungsroman onto a character several millennia old just comes off as peculiar to me, and makes Galadriel really hard to enjoy. She seems much more foolish because of this. Also, the narrative does not seem to endorse Rhaenyra. There are consequences for her reckless actions. Whereas the audience knows Galadriel ultimately is in the right, and is consistently rewarded for her behavior. RoP spoilers I think the default expectation is that Kingsguard hold to their oaths. And Cole is known to be an honorable sort. And Rhaenyra's rashness is well known at this point. It's sort of like if a priest of yore (vague period of the 16th-17th century) were to accompany a young lady for protection it probably wouldn't cause a scandal.

I thought it was quite a good episode. The episode provided some additional depth to many characters, and was a pretty engaging drama. I find myself liking several characters at this point. Alicient, Rhaenyra, Viserys, Daemon, Otto, and Cole are all well done and engaging to watch. This kind of development will be especially important later on in the series. Good episode.

Does anyone get excited watching people get butchered to death? The answer of course is yes. I don't see how other animals should be different when it's fictional. I honestly find it baffling that this is a common objection. Animals are quite casually (and needlessly) put in a misery that is almost unfathomable for their entire existence, in numbers of billions per year. We're all complicit in this in one form or another, or our friends and family are. It's just for me a weird thing to be sensitive about, considering who we are as people. Especially when the deaths depicted were relatively quick and not deliberately cruel. It's not like it was extended torture, such as the animals endure so we can have a delicious pot roast or what have you.

I really disliked Daemon John Wick'ing his way through the Crab People. For a moment I thought I was watching Rings of Power. Other than some of the nonsense on the Stepstones, I thought the episode was solid. It's probably the weakest episode because the battle at the Stepstones was so silly.

Ok. Well, fortunately we have two examples of adaptations from Martin's work in this particular world, so we'll see. I expect this to be a good adaptation, but not without its flaws, and so it shall be fun to compare the merits and demerits of each series. She and Viserys were the only two real contenders, but the votes for Viserys far outstripped that for Rhaenys, so it wasn't much of a contest. Rhaenys seemed to have taken all of this into account with her speech.

As has been mentioned before, a good deal of earlier GoT dialog was invented or adjusted. Could it possibly be that this dialog was good because... David Benioff and Dan Weiss are good writers? That it wasn't just some angelic residue of Martin's words that beautified and remade a couple of hack writers into something good? Perhaps adapting Martin's works well requires...talent? I think these lines are perfectly believable coming from someone who was in this exact position and for whom the entire realm turned against explicitly due to her gender. Unlike us, Rhaenys hasn't read Fire and Blood and doesn't know what will happen.

Considering the roles cast, at least chronologically the movie will go beyond WW2 and at least touch on the AEC security hearing of Oppenheimer's communist affiliations.

I suppose it depends on the grading scale you use. If 10 is supposed to mean the most groundbreaking and influential work ever, then perhaps Principia Mathematic by Newton is the sole work to deserve a 10. If 10 means highly exceptional, but something mortals can achieve, I would say that it is reasonable that some would see this as a 10 episode. I considered it to be a 9. It made a franchise that I thought was dead to me not only interesting again, but extremely engaging, which is an impressive feat.

I really, really liked it, which is a relief to say. This first episode instills a lot of confidence that this will be a truly good series. It was faithful to Martin's work, and the writers expanded on it in the manner of writers who really care for and understand his work, and are also able to effectively translate it. If the show continues in this vein, considering the absolutely spectacular material ahead, this can be incredible. Which is astonishing to say. The only thing better would be if Rings of Power - against all expectations - managed to be a quality show itself. That would make for a sensational next few weeks.