I thought the episode itself was pretty good. If that had been episode 5 in a 10 episode season I would have been pretty pumped about what was coming up. Big buildup! Huge things on the horizon! That doesn’t work as a finale though.
Outside of one episode this entire season seemed like it was making very very slow progress if at all. I think half of Rhaenyra’s scenes were complaining that she didn’t have options and that her lieutenants didn’t respect her. Daemon’s season has been discussed to death as well.
The biggest thing that happened was obviously Alicent offering capitulation. Her knowing that Rhaenyra was at Harrenhall and getting there in time seemed magical, but whatever. I thought it seemed plausible that she would do that and that they acted the hell out of the scene. Aemon has to die, but they didn’t discuss the actual problem, Aemond. Was the unspoken assumption that he would be killed when flying out to join Cole? Rather big assumption IMO.
Given Helaena’s refusal to fight and Rhaena’s apparently imminent claiming of a dragon, something big has to happen to even the field. Fighting worthy dragons is something like 8 to 1? Get one or two with scorpions I suppose, but Aemond was afraid of 3v1 so it’ll take more than that.
Basically this entire season has been nothing but set-up for the next one. Perhaps that will work great when the entire series is complete and they can be watched back-to-back, but another 2-year(?) gap before the next one just means all of the political details that were so carefully constructed and put into place will be completely forgotten about. The “previously on” recap for season 3 is going to have to be 20 mins long.
The dumbest part of Alicent’s plan is that Aemond would ALSO have to die, hell even more so than Aegon. The greens also have Daeron and his dragon, who they said had just now become large enough to ride, so good against infantry but useless against any of team black’s dragons.
I enjoyed the whole season well enough, but I started the series pre-loaded with having read Fire and Blood, World of Ice and Fire, and Rise of the Dragon. I admit that the relative lack of action in the majority of episodes would have disappointed me if I wasn’t busy seeing how the showrunners were filling in details, changing characters and events, etc. Even so, I look forward to next season.
Looking forward to a (thus far hypothetical) series about Aenar Targaryen (4x great grandfather of Aegon the Conquerer) leaving Valyria after his daughter Daenys foresaw its doom. Settling them all on Dragonstone, raising heirs and dragons, etc. Yeah, I’m waaay too into it.
Did it reveal who actually had Otto? I sort of took it as Alicent at first, then not, but my money would be on Aemond, if it was Ageon, it was before he was burnt and deposed.
My assumption is that some of the bastard riders are going to flip. Rhaenyra hasn’t done anything to really instill loyalty and her brat son is not making things better.
That would definitely fall under “something big to even the field.”
I don’t think Jace was that out of line, Ulf was being a huge shithead. You are correct that it’s a delicate situation though; no real reason for them to stay loyal outside Addam’s lineage. Rhaenyra’s offer of a knighthood each seems to be a pretty big lowball. They’re easily more important than a fair amount of nobility, and there are going to be openings after a civil war. Give them titles and land.
She did tell Rhaenyra what’s Aemond’s plans were. Maybe we were to understand that they’d kill him in battle.
That is what it sounded like, but Rhaenyra told her she had to sacrifice one of her sons. A son for a son. Which doesn’t make sense because the claim would just go down the line to her other two sons, both dragon riders. The war would not end with conquering kings landing and killing Aegon.
This season was just so disappointing in the lack of major events. Feels like they’re just trying to squeeze extra seasons out of it. I was sure we’d get at least to First Tumbleton as the season finale but we didn’t even get to The Gullet; come to think of it, The Gullet would have been a great cliff-hanger to end Season 2, really amping up the emotions and slamming home the fact that plot armor does not exist in this story. I guess we’ll find out in TWO YEARS!!
One of the criticisms of S7 and S8 of GoT was that they were rushed. I wonder if producers looked at that feedback and overcorrected. The content isn’t stupid like those seasons; this would have worked if sped up and had more of a culmination.
No, but I think it’s Larys Strong. Aemond already told Larys he wants Otto for his Hand, insulting Larys in the process. He tasked Larys with locating Otto and returning him to court. Since Larys clearly has plans to restore Aegon to the throne, bringing Otto back as Aemond wants would foil that goal.
I haven’t read any of the books so have no idea what to expect next. Guess I’ll just have to hope I’m still around to see the next installment. Probably will be. I did feel a bit cheated and ill used at the ending of this season.
Alright. The setup seems like it’s all done and things are starting to move. I’m excited to see where the rest of the season is going to go now that we’re ready to see some payoff for the slow start.
I think at this point I might as well read the book (s?), given the snail pace of the show. Can’t really deal with another 8 seasons of this over 16 years.
They already confirmed it’s ending in season 4, so only four more years! the book is very short, if you really wanna be spoiled it’s probably a better story with a completely different vibe anyways.
Ok, so the Princess and the Queen is 80 pages and they’re making 4 seasons. ASOIAF’s published content is like 4,000 pages and that covered roughly 5 seasons. No wonder the pacing is off.
It’s actually “Fire and Blood” which encompasses “The princess and the Queen” and “The rogue prince” (Daemon), but it’s still very short. And even worse it is written as a history book that simply jumps from big event to big event without any of the minutiae in between.
The Hedge Knight would translate perfectly into a feature length movie. Would need a ton of padding to fill out 8 or 10 episodes. Maybe they British and make it 3-4 episodes? (hah)