[Poll] How would you rate episode 103?

[Ran]

What'd you think?

[Wightman]

I gave it an 8. I thought it was better than the first two. Westeros is unravelling, Rhaenyra sees it, and Daemon is, well becoming Daemon. 

[lakin1013]

A 4.  The crab face eating squabble had no point?  No point at all?  And all those poorly equipped crab face eating followers of the crab boss dude had no overriding mission statement?  So did crab face eating boss have leprosy and that is why he was cranky, or just allergic to shell fish?

Viserys.  Whine, whine, wine. This episode was like Days of Whine and Roses for Viserys. The man just got on my nerves for all his neediness and taking up all the air around him.  Finally, he was too drunk (or maybe ill) to kill the poor stag.  Hated that scene.

Rh - girl is a bitch.  I like her.

Daemon - Dude has issues.  

I end with a question and I promise I have seen every ep and read all the GOT books.  Who was riding the dragon while Damon was singlehandedly killing the crab face family?  GOT told us only Targs can ride dragons.  Does Valeryian blood work same so it was Laenor?  When did he get lessons?  Or does his family have their very own set of dragons?  ty in advance  :-)

[Caligula_K3]

4 minutes ago, lakin1013 said:

A 4.  The crab face eating squabble had no point?  No point at all?  And all those poorly equipped crab face eating followers of the crab boss dude had no overriding mission statement?  So did crab face eating boss have leprosy and that is why he was cranky, or just allergic to shell fish?

 

The crab eater, as far as I can tell, was a radical crustacean-rights advocate and also an experimental biologist. All he wanted to do was train crabs to eat people in peace. But Daemon just had to ruin everything.

Yeah, I give this one a 6. I enjoyed the early stuff with Viserys and some of the Rhaenyra scenes. There was also a pug. But this show has yet to grab me, and the whole ending sequence, while entertaining and well shot, lost me.

[C.T. Phipps]

MY REVIEW:

https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2022/09/house-of-dragon-1x3-second-of-his-name.html

"Second of His Name" is probably the weakest of the three House of the Dragons episodes so far. This is partially due to yet another massive time skip when I think everyone is actually quite invested in the story as is. We could have easily done a couple of episodes on the aftermath of Queen Aemma's death as well as the marriage of Alicent Hightower to the King. Part of this is due to the fact that they didn't start the series with the Dance of the Dragons beginning, in my humble opinion, so we're caught between the show moving too fast and getting bogged down in a season of backstory simultaneously.

The episode can be summarized as taking place in two parts: the Great Hunt and the Stepstones War. A Great Hunt has been arranged for the celebration of Prince Aegon's second birthday and King Viserys is already getting pressure to marry his daughter off as well as name his son the new heir. Waiting two years with the infant mortality rates seems reasonable, sadly. Meanwhile, Daemon and Corys are not doing great in their war against the Crabfeeder.

We start with a three year time skip and unfortunately, it makes Rhaenyra look terrible because it looks like she's been in a snit for literally that entire time. Milly Alcock is forced to play a bratty teenage daughter for an entire hour of runtime and it removes a lot of the awesomeness we saw with her for the past two episodes. Rhaenyra is just mean to Alicent the entire time and the fact it's meant to have been a years-long estrangement doesn't make her look any better. She also pouts about her arranged marriage versus trying to think of bolstering her claim to the Iron Throne by making allies.

This episode really belongs to Emily Carey and Alicent Hightower is at her most sympathetic. If we're meant to infer that she's spent the past three years trying to rebuild her friendship with Rhaenyra, no matter the betrayal, it's something that shows she has the patience of a saint. We also see she's not overly enthusiastic about stealing Rhaenyra's birthright. Which Otto points out that the majority of the realm would see as the reverse.

Surprisingly, Otto is shown to be a trifle more sympathetic this time around as well. While still a scheming weasal, he's clearly not interested in just destroying Rhaenyra to get what he wants. He wants her married off to a Great House and a comfortable retirement. He also is interested in marrying her to his grandson, 16 year age difference or not. Seriously, Viserys seems to be the only man with any sense of age issues in the realm and he still married a teenager.

We get some build-up for a possible Rhaenyra and Cristin Cole romance, however. They get to spend the majority of the Great Hunt alone together as well as making it clear that Cole is personally very loyal to Rhaenyra for raising him up to the Kingsguard. I'll even go so far as to say part of her problem is Rhaenyra is suffering some sexual frustration while being terrified of marriage due to her mother's horrific death as well as the political ramifications. Really getting some serious Elizabeth I vibes here.

Viserys is at his worst here but he's also starting to show some spine. Sadly, it seems that he's finally picked on the fact that everyone thinks of him as a weather vane. Blow on him and he goes whichever direction you want. Unfortunately, growing a spine primarily means that he's become a drunk and willing to yell at everyone who annoys him until they back down. He's gone from being a harmless but otherwise good man to being more and more just Robert Barthaeon the early edition. Thankfully, he's not taken to spouse abuse yet.

The battle scenes are both the best and worst part of this episode. The plot armor is strong with Daemon Targaryen as he shrugs off multiple arrows as well as stands up to a hundred men before bringing down his dragons. On the other hand, I also like the implied politics of it all with the reason the Crabfeeder was winning is because he had a nation standing behind him while it was just Daemon as well as House Velaryon trying to take him down. Sometimes dragons win wars, other times its logistics.

In conclusion, I liked it more than Rings of Power's opening episodes but I think I'm going to be continued to be disconcerted with all these massive time jumps and I know there's still more ahead since The Dance of the Dragons is a decade or so aware. I always love dragons on screen, though, especially when they're frying people and could have used more of that. Just keep Rhaenyra being awesome, give me some more Matt Smith's Rogue Prince, and throw in more dragon action--that's all I want show.

7.5/10

Edited September 5, 2022 by C.T. Phipps

[of man and wolf]

I'm not sold on this show yet. I'm struggling comparing this with GoT first season and this one does not compare. I find the dialog too in your face or just not flowing naturally. The constant referring to each person by their title or what they are to each other....such as "husband" and "daughter" and "uncle" etc....to be told numerous times that so and so must do this because they are the princess or blah blah....it's jarring. 

 

Game of thrones never did that in their first season.  I dont know I just find the dialog to be a bit forced.

[The hairy bear]

I gave it a 7. Nothing extraordinary, but enjoyable. I preferred the Kingswood scenes that the Stepstones ones.

42 minutes ago, C.T. Phipps said:

Emma D'Arcy is forced to play a bratty teenage daughter for an entire hour

That was Milly Alcock.

[C.T. Phipps]

Dammit.

Thanks.

I knew that too.

[DMC]

I gave it a 9.  True preferences are an 8.5 but I rounded up.  Thought it was the strongest of the first three episodes.  The use of the white hart metaphor was a little heavy handed (not to mention - even though it makes sense - I didn't like how its use seemed like leaning on ASOIAF once again), but other than that I don't have much to complain about.  I already don't like Criston Cole but, well, he's not supposed to be for me anyway.  Reminds me a lot of the second Daario in GoT.

[rumple9]

Boring like last week. There are just no likeable characters, the dialogue is uninteresting and the plot is too predictable.

[C.T. Phipps]

7 minutes ago, rumple9 said:

Boring like last week. There are just no likeable characters, the dialogue is uninteresting and the plot is too predictable.

Who don't you like may I ask?

[DMC]

1 hour ago, lakin1013 said:

Who was riding the dragon while Damon was singlehandedly killing the crab face family?  GOT told us only Targs can ride dragons.  Does Valeryian blood work same so it was Laenor?  When did he get lessons?  Or does his family have their very own set of dragons?

Yes, it was Laenor.  He and his sister are viewed as potential dragonriders because of their Targaryen mother (Rhaenys).

[C.T. Phipps]

2 minutes ago, DMC said:

Yes, it was Laenor.  He and his sister are viewed as potential dragonriders because of their Targaryen mother (Rhaenys).

I feel like they needed to introduce that earlier.

We needed an episode between.

[DMC]

2 minutes ago, C.T. Phipps said:

I feel like they needed to introduce that earlier.

Probably but it actually granted some tension to the scene for me.  I was like "clearly Laena doesn't have Vhagar yet based on last episode, can Laenor ride Seasmoke yet?"

[Cashless Society]

Weakest episode of the season so far, it was a 6.5 for me, but that score doesn't exist, so I gave it a 7.

I hope the writers will stick to a consistent vocabulary going forward, it was really jarring going from ages defined as fourteen and fifteen to six-and-ten. And the directing, cinematography and editing felt very tv-like, lacking the ambition of the previous 2 episodes whilst the performances felt more like a dress rehearsal than the final thing.

Hopefully this was just a slight dip and things pick back up next week. 

[EggBlue]

6.5. the other two were better .

this episode suffered a lot when it came to editing and it needed some more material on the Stepstones so we can see why Daemon  gets angry that he's in need of his brother , introduce Laenor properly and see  Vaemond getting frustrated by Daemon and the war to reach the point to disobey his brother.

[dsjj251]

I gave it a  5

 

The time skip isnt the problem, its the writing and pacing. This episode was big enough to be 2 full episodes ,  we had so much build up of Crabfeeder his defeat just doesnt matter. Dont get me wrong, I like the idea of Deamon going all in to show he could win on his own, but again, a 3 year war basically taking place in the background is just bad. 

[butterweedstrover]

The dialogue is so formal and stale it's unbelievable. 

There is no personality behind what they say, all the character work is done through the acting and story events and what they add to those words. Condal is such a nerd. 

5/10. 

[Caligula_K3]

3 hours ago, butterweedstrover said:

The dialogue is so formal and stale it's unbelievable. 

There is no personality behind what they say, all the character work is done through the acting and story events and what they add to those words. Condal is such a nerd. 

5/10. 

I haven't disliked the dialogue, but I haven't loved it either, and there are few lines that have been really striking or stuck in my head. Aside from it being nearly always serious or expository, I think you're right that it's often way too formal. There's a place for that, but not every line or character need the Martin medievalisms: the "must needses" and the "mine own" and the "seven-and-ten."

[Frey family reunion]

I'm a bit surprised how lukewarm a lot of these reviews are.  I really enjoyed last night's episode.  I'm giving it a 9 out of 10.  It was almost a 10 from me, but I had to deduct a point from some of the subpar cgi that distracted from the dragon scenes and the boar scene.

The show is taking GRRM's world a lot more seriously than the original show did and even without fan favorite characters like Tyrion and Arya, I'm still becoming invested in the characters the show has given us.