House Of The Dragon — 2x02 "Rhaenyra The Cruel" X 2x08 "The Queen Who Never Was"

I love a character raised to be a weapon as much as the next guy. But what really gets me is a character raised to be a shield. Who can’t fathom being needed—or even being wanted— beyond keeping others safe. Who believe they are alive only to insure someone doesn’t die. no matter the cost. Characters who self-sacrifice not because they think they deserve it, but because no one else does deserve it, and it’s their job to protect.

Characters who’ve been told that’s why your important. Your worth something because this other person/ thing is important, and you are here solely to keep them safe.

Bonus points if it’s not a legitimate job they’ve been given. Maybe at one point it was, but now that they are free from it, they haven’t given up that mentality. No one is forcing or asking them to do this, but they need to. They need to in order to be deserving.

The man has spoken.

George Martin throwing shade on Ryan again.

"I don't want to hire some other writer to have his version. I want my version. I want to get a director on it who loves the material”

Lmfao what Ryan wrote for S3 that got Martin so pisssed?

having one faction being written as only heroic and awesome and the other being written as only villainous and awful negates the original message of grrm’s original work, btw. it’s kind of interesting to see how these characters are written (the greens being a dysfunctional family who don’t seem to like each other vs the blacks being given positive traits that belong to the greens in the books, or simply not writing things if the source material that could make the blacks seem not heroic) and how fans take this very seriously. it’s partly a result of the marketing strategy for season two, the whole “everyone much choose a side thing” because that’s… not the point of this war, at all. but it’s also the writing and it’s very deliberately very obviously pro targaryen, especially with the whole “aegon conquered westeros for the good of the world” thing they have going on. which is an incredibly strange take. i think it’s really telling when you compare how the tragedies are written. rhaenyra’s loss of her children is obviously and rightfully tragic. her journey in episode one of season two was so tragic and so beautiful because you don’t hear her speak until the end of the episode, when she finally realizes her son is gone. but you also have her riding a dragon immediately after giving birth to her stillborn daughter, who is never mentioned again, if i recall correctly, and that doesn’t seem… possible. but with the greens, you have a very horrific and traumatic event via the brutal murder of jaehaerys being reduced to two silly men committing a crime, when that crime was the beheading of, like, a five year old. you then have his grandmother having sex while this is happening, in an attempt to blame her for it, which is genuinely so infuriating. idk why i made this post, i saw that season two wasn’t even nominated for best television drama and i was just like. yeah i know that’s right. you cannot expect an show adaptation of a very well-known series from a very well-known author to do well when you completely ignore the original source material and then claim your interpretation is better or the truth. it’s simply insisting on itself and it’s simply pissing on the tragedy of the dance of the dragons and it’s simply exhausting.

Daddy? Sorry. Daddy? Sorry. Daddy?

no lube, no protection, all night, all day, from the kitchen floor to the toilet seat, from the dining table to the bedroom, from the bathroom sink to the shower, from the front porch to the balcony, vertically, horizontally, quadratic, exponent al, logarithmic, while i gasp for air, scream and see the light, missionary, cowgirl, reverse cow girl, doggy, backwards, forwards, sideways, upside down, on the floor, in the bed, on the couch, on a chair, being carried against the wall, outside, in a train, on a plane, in the car, on a motorcycle, the bed of a truck, on a trampoline, in a bounce house, in the ool, bent over, in the basement, against the window, have the most toe curling, back arching, leg shaking, dick thribbing, first clenching, ear rining, mouth drooling, ass clenching, nose sniffling, eye watering, eye rolling, hip thrusting, earthquaking, sheet gripping, knuckles cracking, jaw dropping, hair pulling. teeth jitterbug, mind blogging, soul snatching, overstimulating, vile, sloppy, moan inducing, heart wrenching, spine tingling, back breaking, atrocious, gushy, creamy, beastly, lip bitting, gravity defying, nail biting

“helaena does not ride, she has no taste for it”

incorrect, wrong

she was riding dreamfyre since age eleven and only stopped due to her depression and grief. dreamfyre awoke, broke her chains, and roared so loudly that the entire dragonpit shook when she sensed that helaena jumped to her death. they LOVED each other﹠ this show is insane for ignoring their bond.

Disappointed by the show in general, tbh. Gravely disappointed. I had such high hopes for this show and the writes ruined it completely.

This show isn’t even fan fiction, it’s a parody at this point. The writers clearly don’t know GOT facts and this episode showcases it big time…

To clarify:

There is no logical reason for kings landing to be experiencing a famine. The reach is their primary suppliers of food, while the water trade is simply for things like spices and salt, which is used to preserve meat. They were never dependent on that for the cities food supply.

(Also if it’s a water blockade…how is it that all they have to eat is fish?)

Even with the gates closed, they have store houses of food. The supplies within them could last the city a little over a year. So unless they aren’t pulling from them, there’s no freaking way that in mere weeks they’re experiencing wide spread famine to the point of rioting.

The whole food shortage thing seemed like a flimsy excuse to get the small folk to praise rhaenyra. But it makes no sense since she ordered the blockade and a few ships of food will not be enough to sustain the small folks long term.

It’s like the writers can’t make things make sense. They keep trying to spoon-feed viewers into liking rhaenyra. Now they just keep defying logic to make her either the winner or the victim in universe and it just…doesn’t work. Not at all.

I am so tired.

“A son for a son”? After her faction killed a baby in its crib?

Otto was right from the start, Rhaenyra always intended to murder her brothers if it meant she’d get her hands on the throne.

Looking forward to this horrendous woman and her pathetic whelps getting annihilated.

House of the Dragon Review

The Good:

- Aegon and Tom Glynn Carney. Aegon is the one compelling character this season, and his arc is great. He tries to be a good King but can’t protect his son. He tries to get Alicent’s love, but can’t no matter what. He tries to save his people but he gets destroyed in the process. He trusts his brother who betrays him. And Tom acts with his whole heart and soul. They’re truly the only good this season and the only reason I’ll keep watching

- Larys, Matthew Needham, and his relationship with Aegon. Just *chef’s kiss* The best relationship on the show. So much manipulation but genuine growing fondness too. Can’t wait to see Tom and Matthew inevitably do press for season 3 together and talk about the relationship in depth

- Ramin’s score. He is the only thing that’s consistent through GOT and HotD

The Meh:

- Rhys Ifans is a great Otto, but they criminally underutilized them

- Rook’s Rest was an amazing episode but they still had Rhaenyra be the hero by giving her a “divine” reason to go to war

- Episode 1 also was meh because Blood and Cheese being botched ruined what would otherwise be a great episode

- Ep 2 is similar to Ep 1. LOVED the Green scenes and the Twin scene, but they had Rhaenyra feel bad about what happened which is SO out of character. I also don’t like the propaganda angle they took with Blood and Cheese with Otto

- Aemond becoming his book self was great, but it was done rushed and sloppily. They underutilized both Aemond and Ewan

- Phia and Helaena are also great but again, criminally underutilized

- Olivia is a fantastic actress, despite what they did to Alicent

- The Dragon seeds being burnt by Vermithor would be in the Good if they didn’t try to brush it off and still claim Rhaenyra’s innocent

- Daenon and Alys scenes were either incredible or a total snooze fest. No inbetween. They were repetitive and not all the Daemon haunted scenes were necessary. Matt and Gayle are great though

- Criston and Fabien are underutilized, especially post Rook’s Rest

The Bad:

- What they did to Alicent. It is unforgivable. They threw her character away in favor of Rhaenyra. They can’t stand the thought that a woman doesn’t worship Rhaenyra

- Everything with Team Black. This is not hyperbole. The scenes were dull, designed to sanitize them so they are the Good guys and destroy them in the process. The actors, I’m sorry to say, are not on the level of the Green actors. Even the better Black actors (Emma and Steve) have stiff moments through the season

- Sexual humiliation and degradation of the Greens. This isn’t the place to get into it, but people have talked about it elsewhere

- Sanitizing Rhaenyra still, even after episode 7 and trying to make her a hero

- Sanitizing Viserys. The man raped Alicent and abused his children that weren’t Rhaenyra. Why are the Greens holding him in high regard?

Overall, I’d say a 5/10. All it took was the show having Black centered episodes to descend into GOT season 8 levels, since the Green episodes are SIGNIFICANTLY better

The sexual humiliation of the Greens is nauseating. There was no need to have Aegon talk for two minutes about his burned genitals. There was no need to have Aemond stroll naked out of a brothel. There was no need to show Alicent getting dicked down so much.

So much for "main cast" lol

As many of you know, I've been keeping tabs on Aemond's screen time this season of HotD. With the finale now aired, I can share the final tally.

Episode 1 - 158 seconds / 2.63 minutes

Episode 2 - 123 seconds / 2.05 minutes

Episode 3 - 96 seconds / 1.6 minutes

Episode 4 - 159 seconds / 2.65 minutes

Episode 5 - 168 seconds / 2.8 minutes

Episode 6 - 325 seconds / 5.42 minutes

Episode 7 - 93 seconds / 1.55 minutes

Episode 8 - 200 seconds / 3.33 minutes

1,322 seconds / 22.03 minutes