I don’t know about “waste”. But he’s definitely a disturbing little creep now. You’d think he and his family would make more use of his god-like powers. But I guess he’s so off putting that even omniscience isn’t enough for people to overcome their reluctance to talk to him.
I agree this was a great episode though. Fast paced, but no teleportation. A lot of big things happened, so I don’t know if I’d call it a “table setting” episode any more than any other episode. Sansa and her (ex?) husband reunited. Sam (and Jon) learned about the Scorching of the Tarlys. Jon finally rode a dragon and learned he’s Rhaegar’s son and heir. I’m really interested in how Dany will take that news.
Yeah, but there’s also no evidence that they weren’t, which is what DrCube was claiming.
Thinking about it more, it does seem a bit strange to be that GRRM would intend that there be a blood link for dragon riding, and do the whole ‘secret royalty’ plotline with Jon, given that he enjoys deconstructing the usual fantasy tropes. Maybe his intention is that there is no blood link for dragon riding and that what we’ve seen (such as Fire and Blood, written from a maester’s POV) is just the people of Westeros trying to convince themselves there’s a link when there’s not. And that Jon’s plot is not going to end happily…
Some of them may have been, but IIRC for at least some of them it was very unlikely (i.e. they hailed from a region of Westeros with no Targaryens nearby).
Based on the books, Dany is older, by about 9 months or maybe a year. GRRM even clarified that in an interview at one point. She was born during Robert’s Rebellion, while Jon was born just after the rebellion. I’m not sure it has been addressed in the show.
It shouldn’t matter for the succession though. Aerys died before Rhaegar, so Rhaegar was technically king. Then his kids were murdered by the Mountain, possibly making his brother Viserys the heir for a short time, but then Rhaegar had another son by Lyanna. At no point was Dany ever actually an heir to the throne, despite what she thinks. It will be a tough pill for her to swallow.
Wiki says Dany was conceived around a month before Aerys’s death, and was born in 284 AC. Lyanna died in 283 AC at the Tower of Joy, so Jon’s older by a few months to a year.
Of the four successful ‘dragonseeds’, Addam is a Velaryon bastard, Hugh and Ulf are both bastards on Dragonstone (aka Targ Central) and Nettles is from Driftmark, which is the seat of House Velaryon and right next to Dragonstone. So, again, doesn’t mean they really do have Valyrian blood (or that it matters), but also not proof that they don’t.
It shouldn’t matter, IIRC, whether Aerys II died before or after Rhaegar, as the son of the first son is first in line over a second brother. At least it does in Earth primogeniture.
I think it’s just that he simply doesn’t work as a character or a plot device. He was useful to provide exposition we otherwise could not have known, but the problem with a person with Godlike vision is it kind of takes the drama out of a lot of situations. So you have to make hinm refuse to just fucking say what needs to be said and speak in pointless riddles.
If it’s anything other than wanting to kill Jon I’ll be disappointed. Being Queen of the Seven Kingdoms has been her life’s purpose.
If I’ve learned nothing from all the short stories and world-building books that have been released instead of TWOW, it’s that it doesn’t really matter who is supposed to be the true legal heir. Targs with dragons turn into assholes and will burn everything down to rule over the ashes.
I don’t know if they’re sticking with this in the show, but my understanding from the books is that a dragon/wannabe dragon rider formed some sort of psychic bond for life which prevented that rider from riding any other dragon or that dragon from accepting another rider (although the “owner” could bring passengers along). Daenerys might not have wanted to bond her spare dragon with Jon Snow on a lark like that, I would think.
She also handled very hot dragon eggs (they’d been roasting on the fire for a long time) with her bare hands with no ill effect. When her handmaiden saw her she exclaimed “Khaleesi, no!” and grabbed them out of her hand, then immediately dropped them as her hands were badly burned.
Not necessarily. While dragon and dragon rider supposedly form some sort of bond, that doesn’t mean that the dragon would be bonded to that rider for life. For instance, Balerion, Aegon the Conqueror’s dragon was also ridden by Maegor I (and Aerea after him).