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[Book/Show Spoilers] Emilia Appreciation and Beginning the Knot


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Was anyone else loving Emilia Clarke’s performance tonight? I’m really loving how the show ends with her strong points. There will be the inevitable decries of white washing, but overall I feel this was a solid scene.



When Emilia began to address the slaves of Meereen I thought her acting was turned up to eleven, compared to lets say, season 2 when she confronts the Spice King. In both of these scenes she’s supposed to be speaking with conviction but almost all of S2 I find very forced and false. Tonight I wasn’t watching Emilia Clarke recite the showrunner’s dialogue. I was watching Daenerys Jelmazmo, the Last Dragon. Emilia’s acting just blew me away. Maybe she’s just found a strange niche in the acting world where she’s amazing with using languages to guide how she carries herself in a scene.



One thing I also noticed was a possible nod to the Meereenese Knot, just like last season with Pod the Sex God in the whorehouse. I swear, Dany said “Meereen Knot mastan,” a possible easter egg (heehee) for book readers. What I loved about this scene even though it’s not in the books is the introduction of the slaves and the Masters. The collar idea is absolutely wonderful. It seems the sewage diving might be dropped in favor of a slave revolution. yeah, yeah, say white washing all you want. It’ll get worse from here, as evidence by one of the trailers. I believe towards the end of this season we will get a darker Dany and the beginning of her disasterous rule in Meereen. Bonus points, we also got to see the man with the best name in the entire series, Hizdahr zo Loraq (although part of me does enjoy calling him Jizrag the Lorax.) He was given no lines, just some stares, but don’t you already just hate him?




So, solid acting, solid writing, a taste of things to come, the beginning of the Knot, and a sexy Daario wink. I couldn’t ask for more in a Dany episode. Except dragons. J


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Yeah, Emilia blew me away too. I think she (and Kit too) has definitely improved her acting vastly from S2 Qarth scenes. I'm pretty sure you're right about the easter egg "Meereen knot" :cool4: . I haven't noticed until a rewatch. I'm really excited to know how they will handle the knot given that show!Dany is older than book!Dany and seems like she can learn faster maybe ? The broken chains catapulting is pretty smart.





I believe towards the end of this season we will get a darker Dany and the beginning of her disasterous rule in Meereen.





I think we'll end this season with her locking up her dragons, before she enters a self-rediscovery phase and then becomes darker. And this Daario is really growing on me. Not a fan of book!Daario, I just can't take him seriously, but this guy is more convincing in flesh.

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Well, if she's gotten better with the acting, its because she's basically filmed the same scene for 4 seasons now (standing outside the gates of a city, yelling about such and such). Side note, I wish she'd introduce herself as "Daenerys of the House Targaryen"...not "Daenerys Stormborn". That bothers me.


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Well, if she's gotten better with the acting, its because she's basically filmed the same scene for 4 seasons now (standing outside the gates of a city, yelling about such and such). Side note, I wish she'd introduce herself as "Daenerys of the House Targaryen"...not "Daenerys Stormborn". That bothers me.

Seriously. She uses it so much that one would think that Targaryen is not her House name.

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Terrible is too harsh. Obviously she's not the best actor on the show but she has improved and can pull of certain things pretty well. Her being over-dramatic isn't a minus IMO because Dany IS overdramatic. So that's just her being accurate. As for her being beautiful when people are talking about her acting, it isn't really relevant. But obviously it's a pretty necessary component of her character too.


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I suspect we are going to see Danaerys dealing with the "Knot" later this season, but Danaerys should already be suffering the fallout of her decisions. What was the line from the book, 10,000 mouths with feet? Freeing slaves had huge consequences which drove her later decision making. We haven't seen any of those consequences. If the consequences don't come until after she proclaims "I will rule," the television audience will completely miss her motivations. Danaerys's problems don't come from trying to rule (though she has plenty of those as well), they come first and foremost from her decision to challenge an economic and social foundation for half a continent. The reason she decides to rule Meereen instead of continuing her journey was a necessity to keep her people safe.



Ever since Danaerys attacked Astapor, we are yet to see her face any sort of real hardship or difficult decision. She wins over the Second Sons because Daario wants to bang her. She risks her top three people and they have a hairy fight, but all emerge from Yunkai alive and the city is taken.



I hate to complain about a character arc in a thread meant to praise her, but I can't help but feel like they aren't doing service to the character by the current "savior" theme. Freeing slaves may be the "right thing" to do, but it is also a costly and complicated thing, which makes Danaerys decision to free them more noble.


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So as Winterfell's Revenge pointed out, the thread does say appreciation. Criticism of Dany and Emilia can go and most definitely will go anywhere else. But that's not what I asked for so consider your comments ignored. I respect your opinions but I don't have to respond them all that much.



I honestly love that she calls herself Stormborn. It's an amazing name and amazing in High Valyrian. I do realize that her story line has been somewhat repetitive the past ten episodes but there was something in this particular episode that stuck out. Something about her address to the slaves of Meereen that was just incredibly powerful. I see that it's definitely been more positively portrayed than the books but I have a feeling that soon there will be word from the current state of Yunkai and Astapor (or what's left of them) and that will be what causes her to stay... if that's not the reason, well, shit, they've pretty much derailed her entire story line... :)


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Her "Xena warrior princess" is amusing and fun to watch. She's quite the badass


Super bangin


Great voice actress(if thats what you call it)



tbh, its pissing me off that she aint showin as much skin these days. The fame is getting to her head :box: but ill forgive her



Tv! Dany kick ass :cheers:


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I think Emilia is underrated. (On ASOIAF/GOT discussion forums at least. I don't see many casual, non-ASOIAF biased reviewers and IRL watchers badmouthing the character.) She was shoddy in Qarth, but the bigger problem with her character at the time was the writing.





Her "Xena warrior princess" is amusing and fun to watch. She's quite the badass


Super bangin


Great voice actress(if thats what you call it)



tbh, its pissing me off that she aint showin as much skin these days. The fame is getting to her head :box: but ill forgive her



Tv! Dany kick ass :cheers:




She was naked five episodes ago. Give her time; her fun with Daario is just around the corner.


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It honestly depends on the scene, which is why I contrasted S4 to S2. We can all agree that S2 writing was very weak, and so was her acting. As Konradsmith said, Dany is overdramatic. that's her character. Where Emilia shines best I think is the emotional scenes. If there were more of these past S1 she would definitely seem more rounded as a character since Emilia can definitely pull that off.



S1 highlights: all her heavier scenes with Drogo. Really captured Dany's early struggles.


S2 highlights: ... well, I guess that made up scene with Drogo


S3 highlights: almost every scene with her was perfect Dany from the books except maybe her Dothraki lesson from Missandei, but that was quite funny.


S4: Outside Meereen she's gives her best so far.



Obviously it would take a lot longer for a scene by scene analysis of her, and let's be honest, some people will just refuse to acknowledge what a good job Emilia has done with the character. But I absolutely love her and cannot imagine anyone else in the role ever.


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It honestly depends on the scene, which is why is contrasted S4 to S2. We can all agree that S2 writing was very weak, and so was her acting. As Konradsmith said, Dany is overdramatic. that's her character. Where Emilia shines best I think is the emotional scenes. If there were more of these past S1 she would definitely seem more rounded as a character since Emilia can definitely pull that off.

S1 highlights: all her heavier scenes with Drogo. Really captured Dany's early struggles.

S2 highlights: ... well, I guess that made up scene with Drogo

S3 highlights: almost every scene with her was perfect Dany from the books except maybe her Dothraki lesson from Missandei, but that was quite funny.

S4: Outside Meereen she's gives her best so far.

Obviously it would take a lot longer for a scene by scene analysis of her, and let's be honest, some people will just refuse to acknowledge what a good job Emilia has done with the character. But I absolutely love her and cannot imagine anyone else in the role ever.

them eyebrows, brah!

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S3 highlights: almost every scene with her was perfect Dany from the books except maybe her Dothraki lesson from Missandei, but that was quite funny.

All the nuance of Dany was stripped away in these scenes and she was represented as a stoic 'badass' throughout. As a point of reference the 'Valar Morghulis, All men must die' exchange. In the books it showed a tender, sympathetic, empathetic Dany. In the show it was entirely 'badass', 'yay go girl power'. Season 3 stripped away Dany's depth of character - the moments where she looked away to hide her tears etc and replaced it with a stoic 'badass' character at every single opportunity. S3 Dany was not a perfect representation of book Dany at all.

I don't blame Clarke for that.

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Actually I was going to mention the Valar Morghulis part instead of the ath jahakar part, but I wasn't aware of how well received that was or not. Quite honestly, I think the depth you've mentioned is just a casualty of converting this type of narrative on screen without have narration or smaller scenes of dialogue in place of that, which as S1 has shown she would be more than capable of. So yes, I can see what you mean there, but I also think that in terms of where Dany's arc in aSoS goes it was very well handled. Path of the Dragon, as it's called in novella form, was the beginnings of Dany's rise so I think "badass" was a good place to go.


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