House of the Dragon spoiler thread

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm starting to wonder if the Red Keep is haunted and turning young princes into weird creeps.

I mean, there are a lot of weird creeps in Westeros, but per capita, princes in the Red Keep are much more likely to turn out that way. (And maybe safety rails should be put up to keep them all away from windows.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

@Whizbang Dustyboots , I don't think you are being called out for not liking grimdark.

TLDR: You don't like grimdark. I get it.

For the love of god, please stop trying to tell people what they like and don't like.

It's inaccurate at best, insulting at worst, and most importantly, wrong.

You, in particular @Mercurius, are smarter and capable of more discernment than this.

Yes, I should be more accurately criticizing the showrunners' rather than GRRM, for the most part, but the notion that genre or "history" compels them to have either any of the events in this dragon-and-zombies show or to depict them the way they are, rather than those being authorial (here meaning anyone who creates, including showrunners, as it seems "authorial" is throwing some of the posters here) choices is extremely silly.

A largely overlapping crew of (almost entirely male) folks made plenty of bad decisions in the later seasons of Game of Thrones (and were criticized throughout the run for many of these same issues). The notion that they're now somehow immune to criticism is weird, especially since they're capable of heights that, say, Wheel of Time has no hopes of reaching.

If they've produced everything from A+ to F material (it's hard to give "we should put Bran on the throne because something something best story" a passing grade), it's fair to ask them to aim higher than C- material, which we've had plenty of this season.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Paddy Considine deserves an Emmy nomination for this season, although I'm sorry we won't see him shuffling around as a lich in future episodes, causing more trouble by trying to avoid conflict at all costs. (I've had managers like this.)

And who knew that incestuous marriage would bring out the best in Daemon?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Watching Viserys was intense and brutal, and then for it all to slip away at the very end because of a last bit of madness.

He was in so much pain when he left the table, I assumed that he was back on painkillers.

I had previously thought him sharing "so, this prophecy is called THE SONG OF ICE AND FIRE" was pretty clunky writing, but it's nice to see how him sharing it with only one of the young women in his life ends up being his final screw up leading to civil war.

Oh, Viserys, you should have been a minor noble free to play with your model cities and not wrecking all of these lives with your desire to have a bunch of folks clearly incapable of it play nice.

 

[wicked cool]

Tremendous episode. I didn’t read the book so I’m enthralled with where this goes

 

[pukunui]

I think Viserys is being ravaged by the leprosy or whatever disease he has, so he appears to be older and frailer than he normally would be.

Oh, of course. It's very much a perception thing.

Obviously, I was incorrect, as this episode showed his left arm pretty much intact.

Yeah, I figured his whole arm was gone, but it looks like they'd just cut it off at the elbow.

 

[Mercurius]

For the love of god, please stop trying to tell people what they like and don't like.

It's inaccurate at best, insulting at worst, and most importantly, wrong.

You, in particular @Mercurius, are smarter and capable of more discernment than this.

Yes, I should be more accurately criticizing the showrunners' rather than GRRM, for the most part, but the notion that genre or "history" compels them to have either any of the events in this dragon-and-zombies show or to depict them the way they are, rather than those being authorial (here meaning anyone who creates, including showrunners, as it seems "authorial" is throwing some of the posters here) choices is extremely silly.

A largely overlapping crew of (almost entirely male) folks made plenty of bad decisions in the later seasons of Game of Thrones (and were criticized throughout the run for many of these same issues). The notion that they're now somehow immune to criticism is weird, especially since they're capable of heights that, say, Wheel of Time has no hopes of reaching.

If they've produced everything from A+ to F material (it's hard to give "we should put Bran on the throne because something something best story" a passing grade), it's fair to ask them to aim higher than C- material, which we've had plenty of this season.

Took me a second to remember what this was about.

Anyhow, are you saying that you do like grimdark? And I don't see how that is "insulting." Weird.

Of course GoT isn't immune to criticism, and I agree that there were lots of problems with the later seasons (e.g. the rushed culmination of the zombie apocalypse, which seems even worse now that we know it prophesied for hundreds of years). And there's nothing wrong with not liking torture porn...in general, I'm not a fan. But a lot of what you take issue with seem to be elements of the genre that GoT/HoD are part of - or at least the shows are part of (I only read the first ASoIF book, but have heard the show upped the torture porn a notch or two).

Meaning, it is a feature of the vibe they're going for. It is sort of like criticizing MCU films for having violence, when superheroes are generally violent (but for good!) or criticizing a raunchy comedy for being raunchy, or punk rock for being too angry. Genre conventions, in other words.

The GoT world is pretty dark, pretty grim, and there's a good amount of misogyny. It is dark fantasy and not to everyone's liking. The shows may be a bit gratuitous in depicting it, but a good amount of it is just the nature of the world and sub-genre.

 

[pukunui]

So do we think that Alicent realized that Viserys' last words were meant for Rhaenyra and will thus willfully misinterpret them to further her son's claim to the throne? Or do we think she genuinely believed he was talking to her? Either way, it's tragic.

Also, next episode is episode 9. If the precedent sent by GoT is anything to go by, that means this next episode will be a real doozy in some fashion. Any speculation on what might go down? Obviously there will be a funeral for Viserys and then Alicent will move to have Aegon declared king instead of Rhaenyra. But that's all to be expected. What might happen that we non-book readers aren't expecting?

 

[Zardnaar]

So do we think that Alicent realized that Viserys' last words were meant for Rhaenyra and will thus willfully misinterpret them to further her son's claim to the throne? Or do we think she genuinely believed he was talking to her? Either way, it's tragic.

Also, next episode is episode 9. If the precedent sent by GoT is anything to go by, that means this next episode will be a real doozy in some fashion. Any speculation on what might go down? Obviously there will be a funeral for Viserys and then Alicent will move to have Aegon declared king instead of Rhaenyra. But that's all to be expected. What might happen that we non-book readers aren't expecting?

Viserys dead and someone getting killed or death by dragon.

 

[Stalker0]

So do we think that Alicent realized that Viserys' last words were meant for Rhaenyra and will thus willfully misinterpret them to further her son's claim to the throne? Or do we think she genuinely believed he was talking to her? Either way, it's tragic.

People tend to believe what they want to believe. I can absolutely see Alicent believing the king, in his final moments, finally told her "the truth" and wanting his son to succeed him.