SPOILER House of the Dragon - General Discussion

Ep. 8 – The Lord of the Tides

Two episodes after the last 10-year time jump, we jump ahead another 6 years.

Another great opening scene, establishing tensions, plot, and timeline.

(Oof! There are SO many children in this show! I can’t keep track of who’s-who, and you just know they’ll all start dying off soon enough, probably next season?)

Another episode of set up, but the game is being played for real, now. And finally, the old king dies. It’s gonna be war from here on in.


Highlights:
--Aemond’s dinner speech was great. Buuurn!

 

Ep. 9 – The Green Council

Again, a strong opening scene. I have come to believe this to be the writers' strongest suit in this show – dramatic opening scenes.

Very good use of stillness, silence, and waiting in this episode – so very suspenseful. Bravo!

I did not at all understand Larys’ talk about (another?) spider weaving plots in the Red Keep. This went right over my head and I haven’t a clue what they were talking about. (Of course, his emblem is the spider, and the mad princess Talya were embroidering a spider in her scene, but… huh? I don’t even...).

Spectacular end scene, but also quite unsatisfying that the Queen Who Never Was didn’t crush a single one of the scheming Green Council villains. Instead, she murdered a lot of commoners in the septon, making a grand entrance, just to prove a point and show off her power, and then bugger off… that was unsatisfying and puts her squarely in the bucket of villains. (But then again, everyone is a villain in this show, so…)

All in all, a powerful episode but this show still cannot, for a number or reasons, hold a candle to GoT.

 

Ep. 10 – The Black Queen

A very dramatic season finale, even though the show continues to be slow and measured. (In a nutshell, there are too few factions and personalities playing the throne-game in this show to warrant the same sprawling conflicts as GoT, which means we have to dwell longer with the few gamers there are). I find that of all the characters, the Queen Who Never Was is the one who resonates with me the most, (despite her crushing a bunch of commoner for now reason last episode – that is hard to forgive).

I'm a little confused about the entire stillborn baby plotline, which I fail to see the importance of, really. Oh, well.

Cool episode, and finally the war for the House of the Dragon – for which this entire first season has been a prologue – begins. Tense stuff. I hope more will happen in season 2.