House of the Dragon spoiler thread

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There's commentary? They show didn't make that clear at all.

Yeah, you have to scroll through the credits. It really should be a separate file, but HBO Max is making a lot of weird choices nowadays.

 

[Zaukrie]

That is interesting. I was under the impression that the coming intervention by the crown may have goaded Daemon into going along with the Velaryon plan in order to resolve the situation without needing the save from his big brother.

Yes? But all those troops we saw were there for two years, weren't they? Then they just win? Not great writing, not for me.

 

[Tonguez]

Corlys “we’ve been here 2 years and we’re losing this war!”
Soldier “Lo!, the king has just sent reinforcements but they’ll take no time to get here, oh look theyre here already, just out of camera shot!”
Prince Daemon “oh bother” ~whack, whack~ “okay CV we’ll do your plan”
Prince Daemon rows a boat
Prince Daemon “hey Mr Crabby come out and play!”
Mr Crabby “Get em boys!”
Prince Daemon “huh Suckers! Oh bother I took an arrow to the knee!”
Army “yay!”
Dragon “raaaaawrrrh!”
Daemon “oh and heres Mr Crabby! Well, just his top half, he was so suprised his legs are still running away!”
Corlys “huh?”

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

.

 

[Older Beholder]

I like how focused the show is on the actual game of thrones.
Every character gets more interesting with each episode. Patty Considine is doing such a good job as King Viserys, loving his portrayal.

As for the battle at the end, they used Daemon as bait to lure the crab army out of their cave.

 

[Aeson]

I thought Crabby Patty was going to be a long term villain. I guess I was wrong. He did have time to die* Damon's hair.

*No I spelled it correctly.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Patty Considine is doing such a good job as King Viserys, loving his portrayal.

Yeah, he's my favorite part of the show. His flaws are human flaws and while he's bad at being a king, he's not a Bad King in the way Westeros seems to constantly have otherwise. He's a mediocre father and a terrible person to sit on the Iron Throne, but he's not monstrous and is doing the best he can, in his fumbling way.

 

[Stalker0]

Yeah, he's my favorite part of the show. His flaws are human flaws and while he's bad at being a king, he's not a Bad King in the way Westeros seems to constantly have otherwise. He's a mediocre father and a terrible person to sit on the Iron Throne, but he's not monstrous and is doing the best he can, in his fumbling way.

Agreed. Its interesting to watch his dynamic with Rynera. As a father he wants his daughter to be happy but in doing so he is really weakening himself and frankly feeding Rynera's worst personality traits, but you can feel his struggle and I think he is genuinely trying to do the right thing...but its the weak thing.

Rynera is doing herself no favors. While she looked good in the first few episodes up against Damon, as she has grown into a teenager frankly she's a brat. For all her talk of getting supplanted in the succession, she is acting like a terrible heir: being petulant, spoiled, argumentative, and filled with nothing but complaints. She acts like limited control is no control, she is pissed she has to get married yet tries to exert no power or control over the choice until its basically thrown in her lap at the end of the episode. Instead of trying to reinforce her father's choice in her, every action she takes makes that choice look worse and worse. I am hoping that Boar (and the stag) will act as a bit of a wake up call, telling her to get her s*** in gear and start acting like she actually wants the job.

As for the end battle scene.... we have moved back into the late GOT era school of tactics. So the master plan is to send Damon out alone....hope he doesn't get instantly killed by hundreds of arrows (and of course he doesn't, because that late GOT era plot armor is back on the menu), and somehow this will coax the enemy to send out their entire army. Because.....why would they do that exactly? For all accounts the Crab guy (can't remember his name) has shown himself to be a cautious and shrewd tactician, able to beat a superior force that includes dragons. Hell the entire battle scene we see how paranoid he is about dragons, constantly checking the skies. Yet when he has Damon dead to rights, instead of...you know.... having an archer just finish the job, or send like 10 guys to surround him and take him out....he sends his whole army because reasons. It makes no sense, it's an incredibly stupid plan...and if we were back into early GOT logic.... Damon would be food for the crabs at this point.

Now if they had gone with what it first appeared, that Damon had gone rogue and took an insanely risky gambit that just let him get close enough to the Crab guy to take it out....I could buy that. Damon seems the type that would easily rather go out in a blaze of glory rather than have to bow before his brother again for bailing him out.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Now if they had gone with what it first appeared, that Damon had gone rogue and took an insanely risky gambit that just let him get close enough to the Crab guy to take it out....I could buy that. Damon seems the type that would easily rather go out in a blaze of glory rather than have to bow before his brother again for bailing him out.

I honestly think that's what happened.

Damon went out solo, intending to somehow convince the Crabfeeder to fight him one on one -- maybe he'd offer him a spoken line of dialogue as a bribe. As he's rowing over (wtf, you have a dragon, bro, just fly and send your dragon away), the reinforcements arrive (unhelpfully in the same livery as the troops already there, just clean), the Sea Snake realizes that Damon has gone with the "I'll take them all on solo" plan they rejected, and everyone sails and flies to the rescue.

For the sake of surprising/confusing the audience, this was all kept a secret from us. I really, really hope we get exposition at the very beginning of the next episode making this clear.

 

[payn]

I honestly think that's what happened.

Damon went out solo, intending to somehow convince the Crabfeeder to fight him one on one -- maybe he'd offer him a spoken line of dialogue as a bribe. As he's rowing over (wtf, you have a dragon, bro, just fly and send your dragon away), the reinforcements arrive (unhelpfully in the same livery as the troops already there, just clean), the Sea Snake realizes that Damon has gone with the "I'll take them on all solo" plan they rejected, and everyone sails and flies to the rescue.

For the sake of surprising/confusing the audience, this was all kept a secret from us. I really, really hope we get exposition at the very beginning of the next episode making this clear.

I saw the preview for next week after the credits and I think they will fill in the blanks. Though, I agree, they seem to be getting cagey with things and trying to keep people guessing and it usually makes for crap TV/movies.