Darryk

Yeah I said in earlier posts that her slaughter of the peasants was the first time in the show that I felt the writers had buggered up and gone for spectacle over good storytelling. But at the same time, killing peasants is different from killing members of her own family.

Just to elaborate, in my post earlier I wasn't suggesting that Larys actually has a foot fetish because of his own clubfoot, I was just saying it was poetic.

I'm surprised people think it was bad writing for Rhaenys to fly away instead of killing the greens. It would have been totally out of character for her to just ruthlessly torch members of her family. Yes, perhaps doing so would have prevented the war, but you're saying that with the benefit of knowing how bad the war's going to get, which Rhaenys wouldn't know.

It was at least a hundred.

I did notice that, yeah. You could argue everyone was in shock but yeah, it would have been better writing for the Kingsguard to form a shield in front of them.

It's not so much "they haven't read the source material so they don't mind the changes" that's my issue as "they're cheering a character for slaughtering peasants en masse, possibly because they think it's 'Girl Boss'" Just shows how psychotic Twitter is.

If they link the killing of the dragons to this moment then credit to them. I would like there to be some more immediate consequences for it though ie. The Greens using it as propaganda against the Blacks. It was a really traumatic event for the people of King's Landing and the next episode should acknowledge that and not just continue as if nothing happened. Rhaenys just knowingly butchered thousands of people so I hope the writers realised this makes her character a ruthless psycho (and someone who would've been a terrible queen) and weren't trying to make this into a "Girl Boss" moment. The reason I think this scene won't have the consequences it warrants is because I'm worried they did a D+D and just went for spectacle. "Creatively it made sense cause we wanted it to happen" etc. As much as I'm loving this series. GoT season 8 made me cynical and expect the worst. The writing on this show has been top notch but there's always that fear they'll jump the shark.

I was fine with the foot fetish thing, it's appropriate since he has a clubfoot. I was thoroughly enjoying the episode up until the Rhaenys thing.

This is the first time the series did something I really didn't like. What happened at the end was unnecessary and ruined a great crowning scene. The show went for spectacle at the expense of good storytelling; something GoT did time and time again in the latter seasons. I'm also worried the show is going to go the way of Rings of Power and keep trying to deliver these cringeworthy "Girl Power" moments. No, killing a bunch of civilians with a dragon doesn't become cool and badass just cause a woman did it. There actually should be serious consequences for what Rhaenys did. I'll be happy with the writing if, say, more people turn against the Blacks as a result of it. But I've got a bad feeling the writers simply wanted the spectacle and didn't much care for consequences. A very D+D thing to do, I'm sad to say. I guess it's tough being a show writer cause you can be on top of your game for 8 episodes but make one big mistake in the 9th and people start to lose trust in you. I just hope this isn't the first step in the series devolving like GoT did.

I don't buy it. House of the Dragon has been made into an excellent adaptation from material that doesn't even have any dialogue, thanks to great writing. Good writers would be able to work around any issues imposed by the source material. The writing for WoT is just bad, simple as. It has an inexperienced showrunner who's basically a puppet for Jennifer Salke, and anything she touches will be politically-infused garbage.

So she'll be the most powerful female channeller (or probably just the most powerful channeller of both genders the way this show is going, cause who gives a naff about the Dragon Reborn) AND the bestest most amazing sword fighter. Girl power FTW!

It's much better than that. It's brought the characters and events of the book to life in a way that 's just mesmerizing. The HOTD writers had a much tougher job adapting this than D+D had with GoT, as they had to write their own dialogue and work off a very rough outline that the book provided. And damn are they doing a great job. Just imagine if these guys had been in charge of the last few seasons of GoT.

Interestingly Matt Easton just did a video about how everyone carried knives in the Middle Ages.

What an incredible episode. This show has got me hook, line and sinker. It can do no wrong in my eyes. To think people were so unenthused about it beforehand.

She's not supposed to be entirely likeable. The show's actually doing a good job of foreshadowing what she becomes later. At least she feels like a well-rounded character.

This show is so nuanced and well written. The characters are believable and the dialogue is solid. All very much the opposite of a certain other show I can think of. My only gripe is every time they mention the Prince that was Promised or any of that stuff I get a jab of pain from remembering how GoT screwed up / flat out ignored that entire story thread.

Football: Maradonna Tennis: Federer The rest I don't know anything about.

Interesting that they're portraying Laenor as more traditionally masculine than he is described in the book. It's the reverse of what they did with Lloris in GoT, where they made him somewhat effeminate in the show despite him being one of the greatest knights in the realm in the book. I reckon Viserys has delusions of grandeur about being a dreamer.

Can anyone with medieval knowledge tell me if the trick Daemon pulled during the tourney (tripping the guy with has lance) was pure bollocks or something that would actually happen in a medieval setting?

I really enjoyed it, felt much more true to GRRM's world than the latter seasons of GoT. Aegon dreaming of the Long Night was quite a dramatic reveal, the speech gave me chills (until I remembered how crap the Long Night was in season 8) The tourney seemed rather untrue to medieval history. Would what Daemon did (tripping the horse) be allowed?

So far my issues with the series are a) it looks fake, the production value doesn't seem that high for what the budget is b) bad dialogue c) I don't like the sidelining of Rand since he's my favorite character in the books and I believe his struggles with trauma is the heart of the books, but that's just a personal thing on my part. I don't have much hope of these issues being resolved, why would these things change if it's the same showrunner?

I feel like this story may have run its course. Every season is kind of a repeat of the same story arc, with maybe a few new things thrown in like Soldier Boy this season.

I badly want to see Homelander get beat down but feel like the show has no one worthy to replace him with, as opposed to GoT / ASOIF where Joffrey's death was satisfying and not a huge loss because there were other compelling antagonists still around.

Well I'm finally caught up and damn this season has been a wild ride. I didn't like the introduction of the temporary superpowers cause I thought it was a cheat but now that I see there's a massive price to it I accept it more. I like how there was this sense of hope when Soldier Boy first appears like "finally, someone who can take on Homelander" then you gradually find out he's even worse.

I agree that Bran and Arya would benefit the most from it, but I would add Jon to the list of people who benefit. Five years makes him a more experienced Lord Commander who's potentially found out more about the White Walker threat. I also agree Stannis would be the biggest problem. No sense for him to stay stuck at The Wall for five years. I don't think Cersei would've been a problem, we don't need to see her toxic thought processes, we can easily imagine how bad her leadership would've been. Ultimately I would've liked a five-year gap because I like epic stories that span years. That's one of the things I like about The Expanse.