spoilers [Spoilers] Episode 101 Discussion

[C.T. Phipps]

One of the big changes of the show is that it seems that Daemon is going to push her into Criston Cole's arms rather than moving for himself.

[Ran]

5 hours ago, Sothoryosdragon said:

On a side note I find discussion on here so much better than on reddit. I wish forums like this were more active like they were 10 years ago instead of most discussion being on reddit. Is this forum still fairly active?

Still pretty active, but yeah, not the way it was during GoT when Reddit was not very known.

I agree that I prefer a forum for discussion. Threaded sites like Reddit invite a lot of participation, but something about it also often makes it fairly shallow.

 

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

10 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

As an aside, for all the emphasis marketing has placed on the dragons, pretty much everything I’ve seen said about them has been negative. A lot of people thought the CGI looked bad and was better on GOT.

I wonder how the dragon fights will look later on. They absolutely have to make them look good by any means necessary, otherwise it's a disaster.  

I personally had no problem with the CGI so far, though.

 

[The Bard of Banefort]

Have stores started selling merch again? Hot Topic is selling T-shirts online again, but I don’t go shopping often, so I don’t know about anywhere else.

[Lady_Qohor]

12 hours ago, Sothoryosdragon said:

They brought up the threat to the north in the episode and they also brought it up multiple times in the look ahead teaser. I feel like they're going to try and fix the end of game of thrones somehow and maybe redo it. Is anyone else getting the same feeling?

I don't see how they can and for it to fit into the rest of the story, but I can't think of a reason why they would bring up this prophecy if it wasn't going to play a bigger part later on. 

One thought I did have,  that I hope doesn't come true is that Rhaenrya spends the start of the war, stuck on Dragonstone, recovering from childbirth. That may not make for great TV, so the writers might decide to send her North to tackle a new Wight walker threat. The implication being that Rhaenrya damages her chances of getting the Throne (and maybe her sanity) in order to save the realm, drawing a parralell with Daenerys. 

I hope that's not what happens, its lazy writing and I prefer my targaryens (and other fictional Lords) to be selfish rather than noble

[The Bard of Banefort]

I mentioned in another thread that I think you can view Rhaenyra as a short of “watered down” version of Dany, in that she never reaches the same highs or lows. Rhaenyra is not altruistic like Dany; she doesn’t try to help anyone and, at least in the books, doesn’t care about the poor and suffering (IIRC she tells Joffrey they’re vermin). She’s not an idealist. But Daenerys also starts burning people alive at 14. One of the remarkable things about Rhaenyra is that she never uses her dragon to kill anyone. When Corlys and Daemon play the angel and, uh, demon on her shoulder, she tries to split the difference (ex. she doesn’t disinherit several sons and wed their little sisters to Hugh and Ulf, but she doesn’t show them the recognition they want either). She executes highborn traitors and taxes the city, but otherwise leaves them alone. She’s spoiled and selfish but not cruel. Compare that to her brothers and she’s practically a saint. 

This is why I don’t really buy the argument that “everyone was bad” in the Dance. There’s a difference between being a neglectful ruler like Robert and a monstrous one like Maegor. 
 

Spoiler

And on the show, it sounds like Rhaenyra has been whitewashed and Aegon has been turned into even more of a lout. 

 

[BlackLightning]

13 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

One of the problems with Alicent is that by aging her down, they’re trying to make her sympathetic by having her be the pawn of older men her whole life and, unlike Rhaenyra, never even getting the chance to experience young romance. In the books, she’s much more conniving and ambitious. They’ve actually gotten rid of some of her agency, ironically.

Yeeeeaaaaaaa

I'm trying to reserve judgment on the decision to age down Alicent. In short, I think it was a very bad decision but they are welcome to change my mind.

13 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

This is one of those things where age does matter. Jaehaerys and Alysanne were only two years apart.

Good point.

13 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Initially, the reaction to Aemma’s death was uniformly positive, but now I’ve seen some more critical reactions. There were two female YouTubers I saw who hated the scene: one was a fan of the books and said it ruined Viserys’ character, the other said it was a way for the show to continue brutalizing women now that they can’t get away with copious amounts of sexual assault anymore.

Bah, humbug

Viserys was a so-so king, more weak than strong. He was a people-pleaser. I felt like doing something like this (e.g. going out of his way to avoiding confrontation for the sake of being nice makes him look bad) was right up his alley.

The other female YouTuber who wanted to complain about brutalizing women is being a bit stupid. How many men did we see brutalized in this episode (for whatever reason) before Aemma died in an emergency c-section?

[Ran]

My word, I think we've a hit. The irrepressible Armond White has gone to town on the show, including this ludicrous gem:

Quote

Reviewers are excited by the TV quality of Game and Dragons because they, like Dragon director Miguel Sapochnik, learned nothing from superior cinematic epics, whether Zack Snyder’s 300, Man of Steel, or Rise of an Empire.

Rule of thumb is that if Armond White hates it, it's worth watching.

[The Bard of Banefort]

3 minutes ago, Ran said:

My word, I think we've a hit. The irrepressible Armond White has gone to town on the show, including this ludicrous gem:

Rule of thumb is that if Armond White hates it, it's worth watching.

Haha I read that and was rather confused by it. Rolling Stone did a much better job skewering HOTD.

[BlackLightning]

11 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

One of the remarkable things about Rhaenyra is that she never uses her dragon to kill anyone.

Spoiler

Are you sure? Doesn't she feed Vaemond Velaryon to her dragon.

 

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

3 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Rolling Stone did a much better job skewering HOTD.

Didn't they want a straightforward series about a Tyrion or an Arya? Well, it looks like they're getting just that in a few years.

[Frey family reunion]

11 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

We actually don't know any of that. Alicent is older in the books, but is she a pawn when hooking up with Viserys or is she acting on her own volition? We have no idea ... although I think the fact that she seems to be revealing in the end that she didn't love the fat guy (at all) indicates that she was pushed into this relationship by her father ... like she is in the show.

And I actually do think they moved the agency from the book (Alicent the reader of the Old King) into the show, but switched the ailing Jaehaerys for Viserys.

One of the youtube videos I watch, had a pretty interesting take on Alicent reading to Jahaerys.  F&B specifically noted that Alicent was reading Septon Barth's book Unnatural History.  The suggestion was that Alicent may have had an ulterior motive for using her postiion of caretaker to Jaehaerys to gain access to the information in the book.  

Probably a bit tinfoil, but interesting nonetheless.  Is it possible that Alicent was trying to guage whether it would be possible for any children she had with a Targaryen dragonrider could also become a dragon rider?

If so, it definitely implies that Alicent was more than a pawn in the game.

[The Bard of Banefort]

1 minute ago, Frey family reunion said:

One of the youtube videos I watch, had a pretty interesting take on Alicent reading to Jahaerys.  F&B specifically noted that Alicent was reading Septon Barth's book Unnatural History.  The suggestion was that Alicent may have had an ulterior motive for using her postiion of caretaker to Jaehaerys to gain access to the information in the book.  

Probably a bit tinfoil, but interesting nonetheless.  Is it possible that Alicent was trying to guage whether it would be possible for any children she had with a Targaryen dragonrider could also become a dragon rider?

If so, it definitely implies that Alicent was more than a pawn in the game.

I’m guessing this was Preston Jacobs?

Either way, the books leave open the possibility that Alicent was ambitious in her own right. So far, it looks like she’s a pawn and victim.

22 minutes ago, BlackLightning said:

  Hide contents

Are you sure? Doesn't she feed Vaemond Velaryon to her dragon.

 

He was already dead by then.

18 minutes ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

Didn't they want a straightforward series about a Tyrion or an Arya? Well, it looks like they're getting just that in a few years.

Not really. It says none of the new characters are as compelling as Tyrion and Arya. https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/house-of-the-dragon-review-1398441/

[Frey family reunion]

1 minute ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

I’m guessing this was Preston Jacobs?

No, it was either In Deep Geek, or Joe Magician, one of those I think.

[BlackLightning]

Just now, The Bard of Banefort said:

It says none of the new characters are as compelling as Tyrion and Arya.

Well duh.

It's the first episode. The only compelling characters in the first episode of the last show were Ned, Robert, Dany, Bran and maybe Cat.

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

4 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Not really. It says none of the new characters are as compelling as Tyrion and Arya.

I was thinking about "But the spinoff unfortunately proves a poor test case for the less-is-more theory when it comes to adaptations of George R.R. Martin’s books. A more streamlined show built around a character as rich as Tyrion, or Arya Stark, could perhaps work smashingly".

Edited August 25, 2022 by Takiedevushkikakzvezdy

[The Bard of Banefort]

6 minutes ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

I was thinking about "But the spinoff unfortunately proves a poor test case for the less-is-more theory when it comes to adaptations of George R.R. Martin’s books. A more streamlined show built around a character as rich as Tyrion, or Arya Stark, could perhaps work smashingly".

I know, but that’s two sentences out of a full review.

8 minutes ago, BlackLightning said:

Well duh.

It's the first episode. The only compelling characters in the first episode of the last show were Ned, Robert, Dany, Bran and maybe Cat.

This was based on the first six episodes.

I’m not saying I agree with the review—I haven’t seen beyond the first episode myself—but I don’t think it’s an unfair critique.

[C.T. Phipps]

13 minutes ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

I was thinking about "But the spinoff unfortunately proves a poor test case for the less-is-more theory when it comes to adaptations of George R.R. Martin’s books. A more streamlined show built around a character as rich as Tyrion, or Arya Stark, could perhaps work smashingly".

I have no idea what that even means and I don't want to give them clicks.

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

Just now, C.T. Phipps said:

I have no idea what that even means and I don't want to give them clicks.

A show focusing on just one (popular) character. Which is seemingly what we'll get with the Jon Snow sequel.

[C.T. Phipps]

Just now, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

A show focusing on just one (popular) character. Which is seemingly what we'll get with the Jon Snow sequel.

I feel like he completely ignores that what people want is more Game of Thrones and a single show isn't going to have that.