A Son For A Son - House of The Dragon Season 2 Episode 1 Reaction 

We may not like Otto, but he is not an ordinary man. He was the Hand for Jaehaerys and Viserys, the longest, most peaceful and prosperous reigns for the small folk. He gets the job done.

A woman screaming & throwing up is easy to do. But the brutally real, emotionally twisted human reaction Phia managed using only her eyes is more impactful. Instead of screams & thrashes you could feel the utter pain, terror & despair just by looking through her eyes without needing to see what's happening in front of her. Helaena's freeze frame reaction was on point with her cassandra coded character & it was absolutely devastating. The total silence surrounding b&c & its aftermath made it even more jarring. Ofc Helaena called Jaehaerys “the boy”. She was traumatized & mimicking the speech of b&c as we do in moments of high stress. Her "cold" reaction was her mind detaching as coping mechanism, not that she didn’t love her son. Her offering the necklace was actually brilliantly upsetting & endearing cause it hadn't yet registered with her that these ppl are for real. She's too innocent & sheltered. We saw how common ratcatchers are in the palace. No one pays them any attention, royals treat them as wallpaper. So one would assume Cheese has been inside royal quarters & has routinely seen Helaena's odd behavior & nervousness. That's how he knew she's incapable of being duplicitous. You could pinpoint the exact moment when something in Helaena switches. It's like she has this moment of realization about what she prolly already foresaw & knew she couldn’t prevent. A look of quiet panic & resignation sets in. You can clearly see Helaena dissociating. She didn't even realize that she got down the stairs. When she did, the first place the little girl in her thought of was her mother's room to find comfort. Loved the camera staying anchored to her as if she couldn't perceive emotionally what's happening even as it was happening. The whole scene was filmed as if it was Helaena's nightmare, only to realize there's no waking up

Rhaenyra's dragon Syrax is the mother of Luke's dragon as well. Both mothers were mourning their dead children.

The sound of them cutting his head off actually made me gag😭

13:40 well you see, the North is a lot like Scotland in that respect: technically they weren’t “conquered” by the south, but agreed to go along with unification rather than continue prolonged bloodshed. The World of Ice & Fire sourcebook points that out: because they weren’t conquered but just submitted, the Targaryens didn’t put their own guys in charge there. So the North just ended up paying some new taxes…though to be fair, the Targaryens then ended up spending those taxes right back in the North on a big national highway, the Kingsroad. But the World book even states: for over a century after the Conquest, from Torrhen until now Cregan Stark, the North was disinterested in the royal court and the Iron Throne largely disinterested in them….so there’s not much to say about that century. We don’t even have a full list of all the Stark lords from Torrhen to Cregan.

Helaena was sewing the lace for her own funeral veil when we first see her, and she looked over at her boy's little bed when she says "the rats." I love how sneaky they are with her character's prophetic hints.

Alyrie Florent is alicent’s mother who passed before the events of s1, in case you were wondering who that was during the candle/funeral scene.

its strongly implied that when the ratchatcher asks what if we cant find him daemon told him "a son for a son"

Alicent is the reason her boys started hating Rhaenyra's boys. She told them they were bastards, and that she and them would take everything that was rightfully theirs. So, she's partly to blame.😊

Aegon is the comedic relief I didn't expect but surely welcomed in Episode 1 😩😂 phenomenal acting so far!

in the books helaena had to choose between jaehaerys or her younger son maelor, she choose maelor and they killed jaehaerys anyways (short version)

You only get called the "first" or the "second" and so on if you become king.

HOTD Green Maester: War is now inevitable Steejo: I'd reckon killing her son would do that I can't LMAO like seriously what is Alicent expecting, I quite literally laughed out loud when steejo said that

they toned down that ending scene a lot... it was a full on sophia's choice moment. they really underplayed it. odd for a show that is notorious for pulling no punches on brutal moments. if you thought Robert Barathion was bad... read the history on King Aegon IV AKA Aegon The Unworthy. That fat glut makes 'ol Robert look like Ned Stark

"IT'S LIKE FIREY CARPET" I spit out my water 😂😂😂😂😂

I feel sorry for helaena

Girl I swear to all the old gods and new that the second I saw Cheese kick that dog my first thought was "oh sh*t Suzy's gonna flip out" 😂

I love both of your commentary! Can’t wait for the next episodes! ❤

Well yes he's the second Aegon crowned king, the first one was THE Conqueror. :) Anyways, glad to check back with you guys again. Hope you'll check a series I'm into in the near future.

Right before she points out the boy she is seeing what happens if she doesn’t pick the boy. She probably saw both kids deaths along with her own. The book version is crazy and made this whole scene far more devastating than what the series showed

A pleasure to have you two back on the Hot D train!

Long live team BLEEN!

Helaena kids are a boy and girl twins, Jahaerys and Jahaera.😊

I’m so glad you’re back!

I don't think it's fair to say Alicent is a hypocrite because it has been 20 years since her beef with Rhaenyra, ppl change. Also she put duty first and only now she's following desire while Rhaenyra put desire first.

Feel better soon, Steejo! 🤧❤ Hope this episode brought you away from your illness and allowed your mind to escape to Westeros, where you can hate Criston Cole ("Chadley") with the rest of us! BB will always be there. No worries. 13:35 did you guys recognize Ned Stark's sword, Ice?

Yay 😀 glad to see u guys again my Scottish siblings ☺️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 xx

Glad to see your HotD reactions again! 😁 Helaena and Jaehaerys did not deserve this. I mean I know this sort of happened in the book but still. They were innocent. I blame "Crispy" Criston "Chadley" Cole for not being on guard and for not even having at least one guard watch over her and the kids at all times. He messed up big time and I hate him even more now! He is a vile piece of garbage.

Glad to see you both back on this channel! Sorry to hear work as gotten in the way, but don't worry, I'm in no hurry! I usually skip the intro... SIKE I never skip the intro, cus im no filthy skipper. #DOWNWITHTHESKIPPERS

About the Jon Snow show. HBO has said that GRRM has to be a part of new Westeros shows (thats very good). He was not a part of the Jon Snow-thing..

I’ve done the same thing while shaving MANY times . I feel you, bro!

9:20 Season Two

So long as criston & Daemon are dead at the end, I'll be happy.

Helaena deserves better. Oh btw Jon Snow’s series is not canceled it’s just shelved for now

Happy to be back. Don't be filthy skippers, people. 2:10 - the Yellow Man is going to get you for the H word. 😮

Sound Engineer working overtime in this episode

24:08 THE ELDEN RING DLC IS OUT NXT WEEK🤣🤣😆🤣 I SPAT MY DRINK OUT AHAHAHA

I've decided I'm Team Daemon and I'm sticking with it ;)

Yeah you guys haven’t lost your touch!

Welcome to HotD, Season 2!

Can i just say I say many other RU-vidrs doing reactions but I said NOPE IM WAITING FOR SUZY AND STEEJO!!!!!❤❤

THANK THE SEVEN HEAVENS YOU'RE BACK

To be clear this was what Daemon told them to do if Aemond wasnt there

Team Bleen. I'm no filthy skipper🖤💚

💚💚💚💚

uhuuuuu I was waiting for my partner to come back so we could start the new season of HOTD,,,,

I am team black all the way and Helaena is the only green that I like I feel so bad for her loosing her baby boy. Criston Cole was supposed to keep watch over the children but instead of doing that he was with Alicent.

Steejo, i hope you feel better, you sound very congested

Missed opportunity. You could have said “Chadly is in de hose” 😀

I LOVED the restraint on B&C. This episode was peak bleak, dread soaked gothic horror. The haunting soundtrack with the cutting & sawing noises creates a diff kind of creeping horror. All these "bring back D&D" posts just makes me know that a lot of purists didn't hate GoT's cheap, gawdy, shock value spectacle writing, what they hated was their self-insert (Dany, Jon or Stannis) not sitting the throne. The "emotional impact" the MCU brain wanted was heavy-handed head chopping gratuitous violence. But unsettling silent terror will always be more disturbing than gory theatrics. Some fans can't even see the tone set by the gloomy, grey-filter KL & cry about bright Bridgerton colors! The book's B&C is an overly sadistic creative writing exercise of cartoon villains (makes sense considering it's made by fictional 'historians'). The extended psychological torment of Helaena strains credibility as B&C had no personal vendetta against her & were risking their own skin playing games in the Red Keep during a war. The show deconstructs how history is shaped by the biases of maesters. It exchanges gore for dread, presents it as a straightforward hit, with the grim realism underscoring the urgency & perilous stakes B&C was in. This was almost scarier, as 'historians' frame these events as a Machiavellian plot for propaganda. When in reality it’s some plebs willing to do anything for Dameon’s scraps. Which is spine chilling in a separate way & showcases the banality of evil. It's almost more sickening if less gory. *GoT was about brutality & shock geared for a dramatic reaction. Hotd is about building up a creeping unease of dread. GoT was about the stab, Hotd is about digging in & slowly pulling a wound open.* It's easy to write a woman screaming & throwing up. Pulling off the utter pain & psychological horror of the freeze frame reaction of a cassandra coded character who has already dissociated takes brilliance. Phia's eyes told the story. It almost felt like we're watching Helaena's nightmare.

Missed your reaction.....so happy to see you guys..😍😍

#TEAMBLEEN

yeeeeey

🥰🥰🥰

What's the obsession with dogs

Fantastic reaction, as always. Personally, I enjoyed this episode a lot.

If GoT (forgetting the weak seasons) was a delicious feast, this show isn't even food. I write merely to communicate I like watching you guys waaaay more than this show. If you decided to skip it for any length of time I would absolutely not be bothered, and I bet plenty others wouldn't either. Good health, and bon chance

I feel horrible for Helaena and her little boy...i was SHOCKED watching this😭