Everything on the TV show can be discussed with no spoiler boxes. Any material from outside of the show (books, leaks, etc) requires spoiler boxes.
I decided to shake things up this week and actually post the episode thread in time instead of late. But for that reason I don’t know the title, because HBO is being secretive about episode titles until after the episode airs. I’ll have to ask a mod to edit it in later.
I expect we’ll have some significant movement in the final two episodes because historically that’s what the GoT series have done and if things don’t pick up some momentum I don’t think anyone is going to care about season 3 in two years.
I’ve been watching the behind the scenes documentary “The house that dragons built.” It has some production details for each episode, and I’ve been very impressed with the work and detail put into all the small details. Some of my favorites are all the different dresses, props, costumes and horse armor. It reminds me of the Lord of the Rings Extended edition DVD behind the scenes stuff, which I also loved.
I was surprised to learn from this episode and the previous one that all the fire we see in the show is real fire instead of CGI, and they really are setting stunt people on fire for those dragon scenes.
Found it kind of a boring episode mostly, fell asleep near the start. Slow for the fact there’s not much left in the season, I get the sense they’re hobbitising whatever the source material is, though the Dunk and Egg ones will be the ultimate in that (100 pages per story, large print, including illustrations). It’s almost like “Well we will take 5 seasons for Master of Whisperers to actually do something”. Not particularly stoked for the final episode.
So current dragon count, with their size rating according to an article just read which covered most of them.
Greens:
Definitely in:
Aemond with Vaghar #1
Potential one:
Daeron with whatever, not in show yet. #11
Probably not:
Helaena with Dreamfyre #5
So previously was only one real definite, but the biggest, so I guess important.
Blacks:
Definitely in:
Baela with Moondancer (only one they were willing to let die) #13
Sidelined, due to queen and heir
Rhaenyra with Syrax #9
Jacaerys with Vermax #12
Off being moody so not really
Daemon with Caraxes #6
Plus new, all sacrificiable because kind of loyal (we think) and fodder:
Addam with Seasmoke #8
Hugh with Vermithor #2
Ulf with Silverwing #4
Plus still potentials
Rhaena with Sheepstealer #3
Joffrey with Tyraxes
Dead or maybe dead
Rhaenys with Meleys #7
Aegon with Sunfire #10 (is the dragon dead?)
Lucerys with Arrax (not know size)
So all in all the power has shifted, doubly so because the new dragons are among the biggest. Aemond with knowledge that Daemon was out, could have possibly taken out the two who might fight (assuming either queen of heir), and if Aegon was with him, it would have been 2 bigs vs 2 smalls.
Vermithor snacking on some smallfolk. I know it makes for an exciting scene but it confuses me. Dragons are supposed to be very intelligent. Are they also capricious and cruel for no good reason? That was not cool. Just shows how smallfolk are seen as worthless.
Oscar Tully reminds me of Lyana Mormont. Looks too young to have the wisdom to lead and gains respect when they speak truth to power. I hope he gets to play a bigger part.
Larys doesn’t seem to have much of a whisperers net outside of the Red Keep. He hasn’t caught wind of any of Mysaria’s plots.
That last shot was awesome. I hope it put some fear in Aemond. Vhagar probably just wanted to say “hi” to her old buddies. I hate knowing they will fight.
How good are the dragons at fighting with novice riders, because if Hugh, Ulf, and Addam only matter as far as flying to a location, the war is basically over. Hell, add Daemon to be sure / in case Haelena gets Dreamfyre in the mix. Have them gang up on Vhagar, and then Jace (and maybe Daemon) can help the Tully’s smash everything they come up against.
Also didn’t think this episode was great. Not enough plot advancement. Again. Bad pacing this season and Rhaenyra turned into a whiner. Still excited for the last episode because I imagine it’ll be a spectacle, but such a let down from S1.
There were around 800 posts in the last year’s thread (which was for the whole season) and so I thought this show could sustain individual episode discussion threads, but some combination of fewer people watching the show or there just not being much to discuss because this season has been boring has given us very short threads. I guess next year - or what, probably 2 years since that seems to be the schedule for shows now - we may as well go back to a season long thread.
They really needed to make up more plot lines. Game of thrones moved slowly at times on any individual plot, but there were 10 or 20 threads going on at any time, so there was movement somewhere. But this show is just spinning its wheels and we have had what seems like the same scenes over and over. If you had to describe what happened so far this season, you could pretty easily do it in a paragraph.
Different show runners, but they needed (and were offered) more time on GoT, and now they’re stretching way less material out way too far. It really wouldn’t be that hard to come up with some intrigue separate from the main plot line to make this story feel wider, deeper, and have at least some plotlines in motion, but this just feels like we’re being strung along.
And really, while what’s there isn’t bad exactly, the scene with Oscar Tully felt way more like a Game of Thrones scene than pretty much anything else this season and it sort of reminded me that what’s there has rarely been compelling at all. If I had to pick scenes that would be worthy of belonging in GoT seasons 1-4 there might be 3 or 4 of them.
I’m sure the finale will be pretty good but overall this season is a huge bust after a promising season 1.
Not sure why you rate S6 of GOT so high, I was on the start of the hate watch, and Arya’s three stab sprint section of one of S6s episodes was a bit of worst writing I’ve seen in anything, really.
Season 6 is fondly remembered for the greatness of the last two episodes, but it did indeed have a lot of stupid stuff. I remember a bunch of us got into an argument about the Arya in Bravos storyline in particular, because it was so dumb that we thought there must be some sort of deception/twist happening, and it turns out that no, it was just dumb.
Sounds like they won’t be much beyond instinct without a trained rider, which is why there’s a part she mentions they need to be taught Valyrian.
Rhaenyra needs to have a heel turn, so far it’s more sympathetic to the Blacks (or they have fewer assholes and schemers, save the doozy that is Daemon). But a bloody civil war can’t have one “good” side, I hope it will be more gradual and better written than Daenerys’ psycho break.
I had been wondering, actually, if we were supposed to be able to root for the greens and it’s meant to be ambiguous. Some of the promotional materials suggest you could pick “team green” or “team black” to root for, and I see some discussion on reddit as though people think you can go either way. But it’s been pretty unambiguous in the show that Rhaenyra is the good guy and the rest are schemers and there’s really no reason outside of raw misogyny why anyone of the viewers would sign with the greens. It might actually be more interesting if it was indeed a closer call and the greens had some merit. You could have a conflict like - Rhaenyra is indeed the rightful heir, but someone else on the other side actually seems more competent.
I haven’t watched it in years. I guess I’m mostly remembering the Sept of Baelor, the explosion, franken-Gregor ripping that dude’s head off. Maybe on rewatch I put it below 2, and move it into the tier below. I don’t really consider 5th and below the first tier to be all that high though.
Part of the problem is that nobody sees them as “teams”. Rhaenyra is the protagonist, she is the one people root for. This lets people ignore the pesky inconvenient behavior of Daemon the absolute psycho because we know for a fact Rhaenyra was not only not involved in those decisions, but actively repudiated them. Even then team black only has one asshole, team green is mostly ALL assholes except for Helaena who is not an active participant in the war and arguably Alicent who is not outright evil, although a shitty parent.
Sorry, I am apparently incapable of handing big responsibilities like starting a weekly thread and someone else started the finale thread here House of the Dragon finale 8/4/2024
