[Spoilers] Episode 106 Discussion

[Ran]

Book spoilers and episode discussion here.

[RumHam]

It was nice and unexpected to see the boys getting along at the dragonpit. Any idea which dragon spooked Aemond?

I like the grizzled burnt dragonkeeper guy but really dude you only speak Valyrian? I feel like that's like meeting someone today who only speaks Latin. 

Helaena is a dreamer, huh. 

I don't understand Alicent saying she was shocked the strong boy's eggs hatched. Like you realize you're not a Valyrian either? It seems to me all the kids have basically the same amount of Targaryen blood. With the time jump and casting change she already seems far less sympathetic. 

I really don't know what to make of Aegon pounding off at what I think might be the window Tommen jumped from. The actor is nailing it though. 

Good to see that in the intervening years the kingsguard trained on how to stop one dude from pummeling another to death. 

[Stannis is the man....nis]

Like the episode. Really like the new adult actors. I also they are playing up Aegon as being a unserious person who will be corrupted by his mother and Cole. Though bizarrely enough they rightly treated Strong hitting Cole as this big deal yet give no explanation for why Cole got his pass over the wedding 

[Chad Vader]

Alicents clearly in power which is not what I got at all from Georges story. She only became a major power after Viserys died. I dont hate it but I am partial to the reverence Targ Kings are usually always shown. 

[zajaz]

So, Cole kills a noble knight during a wedding feast and punches the groom (the heir to Driftmark, no less), and we never saw anyone say anything to him. Meanwhile, Harwin Strong (the heir to Harrenhal, and son of the Hand of the King) punches a Kingsguard and is banished from King's Landing?

Also, just as a feared, I think the writers made a mistake in casting Emily Carey and having her play Alicent as almost Sansa-like; I found it somewhat hard to convince myself that Olivia Cooke was supposed to be playing the same character.

I think Olivia Cooke should have been the only Alicent on the show. Her interacting with Milly Alcock's Rhaenyra would have been truer to the text, I feel.

Edited September 26, 2022 by zajaz

[C.T. Phipps]

31 minutes ago, RumHam said:

I don't understand Alicent saying she was shocked the strong boy's eggs hatched. Like you realize you're not a Valyrian either? It seems to me all the kids have basically the same amount of Targaryen blood. With the time jump and casting change she already seems far less sympathetic.

Alicent has apparently internalized that Rhaenyra's children are scum and her children are the true heirs, which fits what she'll say later about their deaths.

5 minutes ago, zajaz said:

I think Olivia Cooke should have been the only Alicent on the show. Her interacting with Milly Alcock's Rhaenyra would have been truer to the text, I feel.

They seem to have wanted us to sympathize with her before her fall. However Olivia Cooke is playing her so delightfully scummy that I see what you mean.

Edited September 26, 2022 by C.T. Phipps

[Stannis is the man....nis]

Also I like the guy they gots for Lars. Gives off this great scumbag feel to him

[RumHam]

5 minutes ago, Stannis is the man....nis said:

Also I like the guy they gots for Lars. Gives off this great scumbag feel to him

He's killing it, and is so skeevy that I might even be ok with the foot thing. There was a moment where she joined him for dinner and took of her shoes and he said "I started without you" and I was like "oh no..."

By the way since Laena claimed Vhaegar at 15 that kills the "they cut a scene of her claiming him during Alicent and Visery's wedding" idea. 

Edit: I also meant to say it sucks that Harwin really only got to be a character for one episode. Did he even have a line before this? 

Edited September 26, 2022 by RumHam

[Mark Antony]

I thought Laenas death was a nice change from the book and how awesome did Vhagar look during that scene? Can’t wait to see him in proper action. 
they finally made Alicent feel like book Alicent and Olivia Cooke was perfect. Actually felt bad for Aemond. Was weird seeing Aegon pulling a prank with Lucerys and Jace. The kids could have all been friends

Edited September 26, 2022 by Mark Antony

[Winterfell is Burning]

Will the people whining about "oh, Alicent is whitewashed" stop now? Probably not. Or maybe they'll move to "Aegon and Aemond are whitewashed" instead.

Anyway, the series continues to get better, even with some flaws that make it not being top tier just yet.

[sifth]

So the show is just ignoring Ser. Joffrey's brutal death at the wedding. They're not even mentioning why Ser. Criston Cole wasn't arrested for violating guest rights and murdering someone unarmed at a feast.

That aside, I was amused by our first mention of Lord Grover this week. GRRM love of Muppet's, did amuse me, when I read the book.

Larys was cool this week and seeing Vhaegar was awesome.

Edited September 26, 2022 by sifth

[C.T. Phipps]

4 minutes ago, sifth said:

So the show is just ignoring Ser. Joffrey's brutal death at the wedding. They're not even mentioning why Ser. Criston Cole wasn't arrested for violating guest rights and murdering someone unarmed at a feast.

He had a knife actually and it wasn't violating guest rite because it's not Ser Criston Cole's house. Which is why the Boltons aren't hated universally.

No, it's just murder.

Barely an issue.

Edited September 26, 2022 by C.T. Phipps

[Mark Antony]

Would be a little weird imo to have the punishment of Criston Cole brought up ten years later. Definitely would understand the complaint if the episode took place directly after the last one but I just assumed Alicent pulled some shit with Viserys and got him off the hook. 

Edited September 26, 2022 by Mark Antony

[sifth]

1 minute ago, C.T. Phipps said:

He had a knife actually and it wasn't violating guest rite because it's not Ser Criston Cole's house. Which is why the Boltons aren't hated universally.

No, it's just murder.

Barely an issue.

Barely an inconvenience.

I know this is a joke, but it still bothers me, that the show didn't address this in someway.

[chrisdaw]

26 minutes ago, zajaz said:

Also, just as a feared, I think the writers made a mistake in casting Emily Carey and having her play Alicent as almost Sansa-like; I found it somewhat hard to convince myself that Olivia Cooke was supposed to be playing the same character.

lol that's the point, Alicent's arc is Sansa's.

[sifth]

1 minute ago, Mark Antony said:

Would be a little weird imo to have the punishment of Criston Cole brought up ten years later. Definitely would understand the complaint if the episode took place directly after the last one but I just assumed Alicent pulled some shit with Viserys and got him off the hook. 

 

Yea, I feel that's an issue as well. One more episode was needed before the massive time skip, to deal with the fallout from last weeks episode. The showrunners, choosing to just ignore it, comes off as very lazy.

[Corvinus85]

Ya know, if we had Mushroom in this fucken show, we could have gotten a Ser Krispin Coleslaw joke, seeing as how they reversed Cole turning Breakbones into Brokenbones. But nooo, this show has to be 100% serious. I jest, I'm not mad.  

Serious review forthcoming.

 

[Stannis is the man....nis]

11 minutes ago, Mark Antony said:

Would be a little weird imo to have the punishment of Criston Cole brought up ten years later. Definitely would understand the complaint if the episode took place directly after the last one but I just assumed Alicent pulled some shit with Viserys and got him off the hook. 

Actually it could of worked if Rhaenyra or someone else brought it up in Strong’s defense as to why he shouldn’t face consequences for hitting Cole

[zajaz]

So, re-watching the episode again. Acting is top-notch and it was overall quite good... save for fricking Alicent. Don't get me wrong (I don't mean to sound whinny), I'm not questioning Olivia Cooke Alicent, quite the opossite, in fact. She's playing her exactly how I imagined book Alicent to be (5 out of 5 stars)... but I can't see anything at first glance that makes me go: "Yeah, that's Emily Carey grown up, alright".

Why did the writers decided to have Alicent being around the same age as Rhaenyra, with this almost Sansa-like vulnerability to her, I will never understand. More drama? Sure, that could have worked for me if we had spent some more time with her, seeing her become this bitter woman. With such a drastic time jump, though...

I'm just having some trouble convincing myself that Emily Carey and Olivia Cooke are one and the same (in-universe, that is), even considering that around 10 years have passed, with lots of conflicts in between.

You know what? On a re-watch I might try to start the series on this episode.

Who knows? It might help to keep some backstory from episodes 1-5 vague (just like F&B).

[RumHam]

9 minutes ago, sifth said:

Yea, I feel that's an issue as well. One more episode was needed before the massive time skip, to deal with the fallout from last weeks episode. The showrunners, choosing to just ignore it, comes off as very lazy.

Also to better establish the new relationships. Two couples who weren't even together last episode have multiple ~10 year old children at the start of this one! A scene of like the Strong family having dinner before Larys murders his family* might have helped. 

*I'm starting to think that the writers of the show and I are not going to agree on any of the ambiguous bits from the book.