nara

I thought he was toughening him up because they both saw how good Aemond is and he guessed that a confrontation would eventually happen. Also, it will make for some excellent guilt when he realizes how tough he was on his little brother and that he was the one who volunteered them as envoys. Rhaena (or Baela—I can’t keep track) is going to need worker’s compensation due to neck pain from her massive wig.

It would have made him even more like Daemon who killed Rhea after she taunted him. Btw, I feel like there is a joke to be made about how Daemon and Aemond are the same person, just with their “d” in a different place, but I am to lazy to think of a clever angle.

It’ll be an accident or a misunderstanding… Seriously, though, I think you’re right and it will be a pity. That was a key moment for me in terms of my feelings about the Blacks. I was all in until that moment. (I started with The Princess and the Queen, not Fire and Blood.)

I thought it underscored that the norm is to treat envoys well—even if they are jackasses like Otto—in the lead up to sending Jace and Luke as envoys. Plus, they make use of one of their better known actors—which is efficient. But I agree that story wise it makes more sense to have Orwyle do it.

I thought that Daemon was trying to see if he could bond with an additional dragon—kinda like fighting with a sword in. Each hand.

I was worried that Luke’s death would not have an emotional impact because of the way they rushed through everything, but the conversation with Rhaenyra definitely helped. Also, while not a Daemon Rhaenyra shipper per se, I definitely got the impression that they loved each other in the book (despite his subsequent affair with Nettles) and was shocked by the strangling scene.

Maybe they felt they did that in Aemond’s first flight and in this episode when Syrax was screaming but Rhaenyra was calm.

Really? I always saw it as being more pro-black (except for Blood and Cheese and when Aegon was initially reluctant to take the crown).

Honestly, not a fan of making it an accident. They did the same with Alicent misunderstanding Viserys’s dying words and is a cop out. Aemond holding a grudge for his lost eye and taking an opportunity to kill Luke is in keeping with his personality (and not totally unreasonable). otherwise, loved the episode.

I assume you mean visually dark. I watched with no lights on and adjusted the tv settings a little, which helped a lot.

Good point. Your post reminded me of the time Drogon killed that child. Until then, Dragons were cool, but that incident made reality set in.

Honestly, I didn’t feel the urgency coming out of the meeting, the frantic need to find allies before the Princess even realized her father was even dead. I thought more debate about who could and couldn’t be counted on, when to send a raven, etc might have helped.

But most of the sexism issues were related showing women naked and sexualized on screen far more than men. Ros and the sexposition scenes, the on screen rape of Craster’s daughters, and cave sex are examples of that. It explains why there is much less nudity in this show but it doesn’t explain making the queens less evil. It could be worse. (I’m looking at you, The Green Knight.)

Was anyone else yelling Dracarys? How easily war could have been ended right then and there…though I do appreciate the badassness of Rhaenys God, I hope someone smashes Criston Cole’s head with something. He has gone from sexy to tedious so quickly. And I am tIred of the Aegon vice story. I do enjoy the Alicent-Otto tension and the Aegon-Aemond rivalry. Also liked Mysaria the child advocate. Somehow, I didn’t feel the the suspense in this episode. Will be interesting to see how non book readers reacted. The council meeting that resulted in the death of Lord Beesbury should have gone on longer and had more debate. Instead tHey invested time in the search for Aegon.

Meanwhile, they haven’t figured out how to help women give birth safely. In this universe a lot of mother die in childbirth (Aema, Lyanna Stark, Dany’s mom, Joanna Lannister, etc.) They did a better job matching the actors’ buttocks than their faces or builds!

I think it’s also an HBO thing. After the GOT season 8 backlash, they couldn’t be sure that this show would find an audience. Therefore, it was essential for the show runners to get to the action quickly in order to get the series greenlit, and the result is they moved faster than we would have liked. Sadly, we’ve lost some good characterization and storytelling in the process.

Nicely done. Related but not humorous—The Hightowers have always been close to the Faith, right? It seems pretty natural that she would lean towards religion without it being a bad thing. However, taking down Targaryen heraldry was sketchy.

I half expected Alicent to smother Viserys with a pillow…

First, glad to see a fellow woman of Indian descent as director! Recasts: Love the new Jace and Baela! Ok with new Luke and Rhaena (though the latter seems to be wearing a very heavy wig for her small head and delicate neck! That’s gotta violate some labor law…) Why does Aemond look so old? And frankly, if they are trying to create some doubt as to whether Viserys or Daemon is his father, they’ve done a good job with casting someone who looks a lot like the latter. Hate the new Aegon. He looks too young and doesn’t resemble the previous one. Not issue with the actor himself, but he looks much younger than Aemond . No real opinion on Helaena since they have barely included her. Little Aegon and Viserys are cuties l, of course. Moving on… Jace is my favorite character in the book and he did not disappoint. I really appreciate his commitment to learning his duties and behaving like a king. I guess a little strong blood is a good thing. Diplomacy, baby. Aemond has now eroded any admiration and sympathy I had for him. That was quick. Viserys was the man in this episode. Will miss him! The lost eye was a shocker though. The end of Vaemond took me by surprise. RIP-once again, honesty=death in Westeros. Was I the only one pissed that no one bent the knee when the king entered? Daemon’s sensitivity was strong this episode (except for when he chopped most of a head off). Interesting what they did with Alicent and making her believe in Viserys’s true wishes. I am curious as to what the at poster who thinks the show favors The Blacks thinks about that. Enjoyed the family dinner, but I wish they gave Aegon some redeeming value. Speaking of which, rape? He was already unlikeable… And I confess to being a total mark in believing that Alicent was being kind to Dyana.

My bad. She intends to go from Dorne to Winterfell, etc and break the wheel and liberate anyone. Given that she destroyed KL, my assumed that she would do the same to Winterfell. Arya, John and Tyrion all had the same look of fear when she made that speech.

I don’t think so. Aemond is not a man grown but he’s at least 3 years older than Jace in the show (4 in the book) based on how old he was when Rhaenyra got married. In all fairness, Dany intended to destroy Winterfell and perhaps Sansa had an instinct that Dany was more dangerous and competent than Cersei.

Jace is my favorite in the book, followed by Luke. I was genuinely sad for them. Jace showed signs of young Jaehaerys’s wisdom in my opinion. Do we ever find out in World of Ice and Fire the original cause of the feud? It would be interesting if Brackens were in the right originally and therefore justified their unwillingness to compromise. Or maybe 3 Eyed Bran zoomed back in time and accidentally caused the Feud. I think Viserys knew Aegon was playing him but he was once again turning a blind eye to the facts. The credits are terrible. They tried to be too clever for their own good. I thought the prank was pretty cruel. Aemond was very sensitive about not yet having a dragon when his younger nephews did, so they made fun of him for it. Luke was too young perhaps to know better, but Aegon and even Jace were not. I agree. Laenor is pretty light skinned so adding Rhaenyra into the mix could make their kids pretty light skinned.

Maybe she’s learned some discretion and composure since her sulky, whiny teen days?

I didn’t get the impression that she was suggesting torture, just questions. In any case, it was a deflection tactic, not a real interest in questioning him. She knows who is influencing him.

Forgot to mention earlier…sometime between Rhaenyra suggesting Jace marry Helaena and now, Alicent overcame her dislike of strange Targaryen customs enough to betroth Aegon to Helaena. Someone mentioned that Alicent is beginning to show signs of madness in the episode. Honestly, I think her reaction to her son’s eye being gouged out is pretty natural. However, I wonder if Daemon giggling is just another sign of his impending madness. Related, “an eye for an eye” is foreshadowing “a son for a son”, which I find interesting. Separately, did Helaena end up killing that spider? I couldn’t tell what she did.