Zorral

There are a couple of non-digital watches here, somewhere. And the ancient, ancient clock-alarm-radio, the audio of which is now prone to short out when a teeny tremor jars it, does require re-setting twice a year or when knocked out its outlet. Or a hurricane taking out all the power for weeks. It was a Christmas gift from our first year, so there's tremendous, silly, sentimental attachment to it. History of our relationship and so on and so forth.

Sunset in North Dakota on December 22 is around 4:40 PM. After getting home from school, I'd be ice skating in the dark.

Was he working? He has pleaded "not guilty", btw.

So it turns out the man who attacked Paul Pelosi when he couldn't get hold of Nancy Pelosi, is a Canadian, here illegally. WRF? to all of it. I mean how is there even such a thing as a Canadian here being illegal? Don't we have mutual travel privileges?

There are people saying it should be Matt Smith doing Geralt, not this other guy.

https://bookriot.com/the-23-best-lines-from-the-lord-of-the-rings/?

Yes. As has been repeated frequently: discussing what's on the screen. And yet, here it is, people discussing, speculating, correcting according to how the reader coteries read the books, chewing ad nauseum the same damned material, right this very minute. I haven't read the books, and all that stuff just messes up my fresh, clean, unsullied reactions. There's no point to this thread, which is the point. Done. And Done. Fini. See, what you bookers don't understand, there is no way to judge neutrally or fairly whether what we're getting via television is any good, of judging what we're seeing neutrally, to react naturally with our minds and eyes and emotions when the bookers are relentlessly, obsessively complaining and discussing and arguing -- sometimes most rancorously -- over what is not there, what should be there, what they think will be there, according to something written a long time ago, and not written for tv. There is no point for the rest of us -- who, are in the majority in the paid viewrship, if not on this forum -- to be here.

And that's Helenae having had less than 2 minutes on screen in aggregate, and not even appearing in at least half of it? Harsh, old chap, harsh.

You're so right about that. However, there's no reason why Daemon couldn't have donned a patch in imitation, right? As far as Mysaria kidnapping Aegon -- how is that since he's under a table in a -- sept? -- and there aren't even any guards? Wasn't Talya lighting candles in the kitchen, not V's chambers? There are all these cooks already working as one does in a castle. So I for one have no idea he was kidnapped at all. So, no don't think there was kidnapping. I kinda thought she sorta told the trackers where he might be, and that was at best. The action is as opaque in this show as the scenes' lighting.

It wasn't. It's just that the poor peasants, poorly armed, fighting against professionals, and already starved, tended to lose. These are the same as slave insurrections. You read the history of say the Caribbean and Dixie, in the days of the Atlantic slave trade and slavery, and you get the idea insurrections were few -- only the very biggest, longest getting into the history books. But insurrections were constant, when one goes digging, as contemporary historians discovered. Again they did tend to be short because of being underarmed and starving. So, the enslaved preferred to run away, as on Cuba and Jamaica, for instance, and in South Carolina to the Great Dismal Swamp, for instance. It was more effective anyway. At least in the US South until the 1840's, when all of Dixie became a locked down prison. Yet, still they ran, and still they rebelled.

Who is this Sylvia What Is She, That All the Swains Commend Her? Erm I mean Daeron. Never heard of him. He's not on the show. But on the show we hardly even hear of most of the people who are on it. (This is the forum where we don't drag in the book(s), lore, etc. We are dealing only with what we get on the screen. ~~~~~~~~~~~ I guess They told her to say it. Except she did kill a whole lot of innocent people. Hand wave, hand wave, do the Hand Wave! https://www.vulture.com/article/house-of-dragon-eve-best-interview-escape-green-council.html But it will be her battle. There's no getting around that. Her granddaughters are alive and heirs to Drift Mark. As far as we know, her husband is still alive, and he ain't no greeny. Further as far as not killing innocent people, that use of Ukraine was a terrible choice for justification, because people are killing all over the place, and would be even if Ukraine chose not to resist. In the meantime Rhaenys's choice means seasons and seasons, decades and decades, of the high born she chose not to incinerate burning, plundering, raping, starving, selling, murdering and destroying thousands and thousands of innocent small folk, and to a lesser degree, each other. So Imma not buying into this. Ya They She doesn't know all this, but she does murder innocent smallfolk -- who moreover were rounded up against their will to be in that horrible dark dank place to 'witness' the crowning of a cruel, heartless, ignorant, stupid pos. Whom she knows to be all those things. It sure doesn't look like anything to look forward to -- there's no stories here. Just a lot of blood and immiseration lurching and thudding back-and-forth over Westros. Quite unlike what Sharon Kay Penman did with the Anarchy in her novel. It has somewhere to go. This doesn't. At least so we're told, that there are no good guys here, no admirable figures, just ugly, degenerate power hungry sadists.

It sure looked as though he was sleeping -- and such a blondie -- I thought he was one of Daemon's or V's kids -- or grandkids. Nor can I believe for a second that there was no adult in King V's bedroom, considering his state of near death.

Finally, somebody gets it: you got a dragon you use it, thank you, Rhaenys! OTOH, so, the greens can’t be taken out by dragon halitosis? So, um, you too did not use your dragon. Sad, sad, sad. Who was that blonde kid sleeping, who wakes, trots off to the kitchen and tells Alicent’s maid that King V is dead? How does HE know? He was asleep! How in the world are we know that’s … Aemond … in that hoodi ... and not Daemon? Coz I swear by the seven, whatever they are, that he is Daemon. He even thinks he should be his brother’s heir, like Daemon believed he should have been King V’s, his brother’s heir. Wot da fook that footsie strip poker with Larys and Alicent? Who in hell are these “Erics” that suddenly show up from where? that we learn are Erics, Eric 1 and Eric 2? Who soon break into Dumas’s The Three Musketeers' France and non-purposely cloak-and-sword fight on stairs WTH? Why is Aegon, the Nothing of His Name, for a night out on the town, hang out under a table? It was pretty good to look at, at the coronation – though hard to see through the omnipresent murk that is the signature pollution of King’s Landing – makes ya miss the rats. Or, maybe not, since before that, it was running round and round like rats on a wheel, another murder by Criston for which he suffers no consequences, this time at the Small Council, which shrugs and carries on with its coupsterage. Some say otherwise, but it was just the day before King V again declared Rhaenrya the Heir, while Alicent determined he meant the son, Aegon, Nothing of His Name, that she herself can’t stand, the heir. Come on, Alicent, with all your book learning, you’re smarter than that, so ya, you’re a hypocritical, lying, two-faced coupster yourself. At least Rhaenys recognizes that, even if she couldn't cut bait and have her dragon incinerate all these useless rats. Show’s done an excellent job at getting me to loathe the disgusting Hightowers, etc., yet, it is an incoherent mess. No to mention icky/creepy/vomitous – little kids fighting and tearing each other in a pit to the death while adults bet on them like cocks, footsie mutual masturbation – notice Alicent participates in the barely allowed shaking as Larys barely shakes – yuck. Hmmmm. Featured in each: a special dagger of Valyria in HotD and a special dagger from Valinor in RoP. An old, impaired king dies in each too. Coincidence?

These guys all look alike, you know the mullet etc. same age, same build etc. Hard to tell the difference w/o any character building. You know, like the multiples of dum blonde grrrlys. Plus, you know, all those scenes are really dark and one can hardly see anything, much less faces. In any case, the Big Take Away, is whatever one may think about Alicent, etc., whatever she did or didn't do, the Greens, particularly her Big Daddy, were all along planning coup -- just like we know who, as was shown on other tv just Thursday. Bad people. Why o why didn't Rhaenys flame them? She killed all those other people anyway. O ya, again, recall, gotta keep the franchi$e going with bogus plot points that never were there in the first place. Again, you know, Criston kills a very highly ranked person among many other highly ranked persons and NOTHING AT ALL HAPPENS TO HIM. Ya, total writing mess.

Also totally lost since didn't King V die the same night after his heroic walk to Iron Throne and then the dinner? So where is Rhaenyra and fam? I swear Daemon stayed behind and he's pretending all along to be Aemond. Who the eff are these Erics? Where in hell did they come from? What a frakin' mess. No connective tissue. And how inexpressibly ugly, creepy and horrible Alicent playing strip poker with Larys for info. The only thing worse than that tonight was the fighting pits of the kids. Despite Alicent and Larys being mutually consenting adults. Don't let them near any kids at all in any way.

Finally, somebody gets it, and it would be Rhaenys, if one's got a dragon of one's own, let's use it. But yet, in the end, no dracarys -- just almost death by dragon halitosis. Of course, otherwise, no more plot, amirite?

A Nobel Prize for the Economics of Panic - Paul Krugman (who also has received a Nobel for Economics) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/opinion/nobel-economics-bernanke-diamond-dybvig.html

Look I haven't read the pseudo history fantasy book a/k/a F&B -- or is it B&F? -- but there is a great big reason Alicent is misinterpreting King V's final words -- great great big big -- because this thing called Dance of the Dragons for control of the Targaryan throne is model on Real History, and that's how the Anarchy begins. As I write on the non spoiler thread: It begins on Henry I's death bed, in his final moments. I'll cut and and paste from that thread: Since GRRM is going for the Anarchy he had to have this precepitating lie in his Dance history for historical verisimilitude.

Funny, so many viewers reactions to Alicent's reaction to what appear to be King V's final words, that he's saying Aegon's his only child and it is through him something something something -- why must her treason to the rightful named heir Rhaenyra be shown as provoked by this? Come on, small folk! This is how the writers attempted to incorporate the historic circumstances of Stephen de Blois and his mother usurping Henry I's throne, stealing it from Empress Matilda. It was a twofer, too: it got that retconned prophecy of the Prince Who Is Promised in there. Nothing at all obscure in the choices of the writers for this scene. Though I personally find the oddness of all this in the reversal of the historical template for this: Henry I was the effectual, strong king, while Stephen's character was like that of King V; the reversal also of Stephen driven by his mother, while Alicent is driven by her father. Whether or not this works or was the writers' right choice in the eyes of the objecting viewers doesn't matter in this case: they had reasonable Reasons for this choice.

Again, Matt Smith, who does Daemon, does more on the screen than any of the others, who, excepting the brilliant Paddy Considine, even when become a monster of physical disintegration, are at best workmanlike, but mostly they seem cardboard cut-outs. Smith seems to have continued to work on his character, making it fuller and more interesting than the first episodes in which he was pure psychopath and nothing else. Smith does it without doing it, seemingly. No expression much of the time, at most, most of the time, something in his eyes and around his mouth. Mostly he stands there, sits there, does nothing, doesn’t move. Until, of course, he does move. After Considine and Smith, the next actor in effective projection is Emma D'Arcy as Rhaenyra. Adult Rhaenyra has dimension, somehow, though how,who knows, since the writers and non-plot don’t give her any. Unlike the YA Rhaenyra, the adult Rhaenyra has grown in stature and interest. Next are the actors who play Rhaenyra's kids, and Alicent’s psycho neo-Daemon, Aemond. The rest, eh. To be fair though, nobody -- including Helena -- I had no idea she and Aegon were married, though I guess it was discussed last episode -- gets a chance to do anything, with few to no lines, and even only a few seconds on screen. Yet, we are expected to know -- and believe -- these figures are important. The show, like the book it seems, is allusion to character, action and events, not scripted drama of development and trajectory, momentum toward a structured satisfying conclusion instead of just stopping and starting the whole thing over again. However in that sense, evidently HotD is historical: one bunch of powerful, privileged men mobilizing degrees of less powerful and privileged in descending orders, to confront each in militarized violence over and over and over, while oppressing, torturing, murdering and robbing those who don't have the weaponized power to stop them, yet who support them all -- and for no reason other than their own fee-fees and driver to power.

So, as the Anarchy is caused by nephew Stephen de Blois, at the bedside when Henry I croaks, and tells the lords and barons that Henry I changed his mind at the last minute and whispered into his ear that he should be heir to the throne of England, not his previously, publicly -- and loudly -- proclaimed heir, the Empress Matilda -- Alicent decides the Aegon King V was referring to was her utterly impossible, gross, incompetent son Aegon. She knew better. But she is convincing herself otherwise. Massive catastrophe. When did Daemon sneak between Alicent's sheets to beget Aemond? He's the spitting image of Daemon, and not even a that much younger Daemon -- and this includes body language. Thank all the demons of the multiple hells that the hop, flap and flop dance was barely there. Also, it made no sense whatsoever to have it going on, particularly when no one else danced. That was pathetic. So dark, dim, dreary and miserable -- claustrophic King's Landing, where nobody can breathe at all. Why haven't they yet learned they can never have a meal in Westros where all the power hungries are gathered at the same time without disasters striking?

I could see it too, though clearly it should have been lighter and detail sharper. But I watched it on my big computer monitor not a tv. Rhaenyra didn't murder Laenor. They made a deal that made him happy. He lives. He escaped with his lover.

A lot of viewers are saying things like this: Why Did Last Night’s House of the Dragon Look So Bad? https://www.vulture.com/article/why-house-of-the-dragon-episode-7-driftmark-was-so-dark.html#_ga=2.34773602.235361398.1664826791-1497948549.1664826791

The best episode yet. Lots of good dragon content. Too bad we hate Aemond. Surely, if Baela gone there first -- but you know, grieving dead mom and all she was careless -- the entirety of Westros would have been happier, and so would be Vhagar, I, for one, am certain. All built out from the previous ones. Already I don't notice the actors for Rhaenyra and Alicent changed last ep., just gotten older. I prefer their older selves, who are also more interesting, to their younger incarntion. Still, those awful wiggy-wigs! But again, a primary reason for this episode’s quality is it's away from that overwhelmingly depressive rat-infested miserable dreary dark dull King's Landing! It always improves when we're out of King's Landing. Liking the consistency throughout so far: Daemon's mere appearance among the extended family ensures chaotic violence. Always. Last episode, dear Laena burned. This time it’s -- Laenor – burned, but evidently for different reasons. And … what about his dragon? What happens with Sea Smoke? They did do their best to avoid the fridge for the queer character ... I guess? Which allows those who are Rhaenyra sympathetic (as far as that goes) to stay that way, in contrast to that quite horrid Alicent, who is getting more horrid by the year. Whether it is her fault, per se, or her father's, all the way, plus hanging out with the nasty boyz, Criston and Larys, she just hates Rhaenryra. Worst of all, she demands the mutilation of a child as weregild for her own kid's eye loss. That's very bad. Then she attacks the Heir with Valyrian steel and cuts pretty damned deep. Shouldn't she be put away in a luxurious cell forever for that? Since she did this with all eyes upon her, rather than arranging for a poisoning or burning, or other form of Rhaenyra’s murder, she seems to have developed a strain of madness – unchecked bitter bile and malice do that to a person. Don’t know whether this is a heritable trait from her family, but daughter Helena seems to have something non-normie going on, but that could more than likely come from the Targaryan side of her parents. The consummation of Rhaenyra and Daemon's attraction is the sweetest lovemaking we've ever been given in this universe. And Daemon's able to perform this time, why? Because it's a consummation of equals? But then we never figured out how he could do it with Laena when he couldn't with Myseria, or Rhaenyra before. Does appear King V won’t be around for much longer,as his previous episode perkiness has departed, along with much of what remained of his already sparse hair.