A major difference between HOTD and GOT is that HOTD is based on one book while GOT is based on 5. This means that there isn't really clear stopping and starting places for HOTD seasons to pick up and end at. So sometimes it's going to be a little weird. There's also the factor of the budget. There are battles in HOTD which would be beyond the scope of anything we've seen in GoT if adapted faithfully from the books. But this also means that things will get pushed back into later seasons.
Perfectly put. Also the book this is based off is an in universe history book. There is no character arcs or character development so that all needs adding in. Yes they have changed some things (some I like, some I don’t) but it is very different to adapt this
No this isn’t based off of one book. It’s based off of a small part of a history book. Even in Fire and Blood, it’s only part of a book. It’s definitely not one book all by itself. It’s like 50 pages…
@@HackWilson14the Dance of dragons in fire and blood is over 250 pages long but you rights it’s only a part of fire and blood but it’s way longer the 50 pages
Aegon was groomed all his life by his mother to be king and forced crown upon his head just to sell him out in the end, she raised them this way and now she runs from her mistakes. i'm Glad Aegon escaped, i want him to face Alicent one day.
@@Aewon84 But it didn't make much sense. Many characters are different from their book counterparts. They changed a lot. And that's probably why George said in one post that their is book canon and show canon.
*_«The green men or Green Men are a sacred order entrusted with the guardianship of the Isle of Faces in the riverlands. Some nursery tales claim they are horned and have dark, green skin. According to Old Nan, the green men ride elks and sometimes have antlers. Most maesters believe their clothes are green and they wear headdresses with horns.»_*
I don’t know why everyone is pretending Rhaenyra said burn Lannisport and Oldtown??? She said subdue their armies. The Hightower and Lannister armies are NOT innocents
there’s nothing to understand they completely butchered her character with that last scene. her core motivation in season 1 was protecting her children’s lives, that was the whole reason she put aegon on the throne. so now you’re telling me the woman he brainwashed her kids all their lives telling them rheanyra would kill them if she became queen is the same woman who gives them up to rheanyra on a sliver platter? lol alright
@@algerianchaouki5705 Plural? She only sold out the one, and not really. She already knew that Larys was planning to spirit away Aegon. Aemond has to die, of course, but his fate is not really being discussed in that scene. And Daeron? He'd probably get betrothed to Rhaena or something. It was common practise in the middle ages to sign the peace with a marriage alliance. As for Rhaenyra/Alicent fan fic, they've never had any sexual tension between them as adults and they still don't, so I don't see where you're getting that idea.
@@vivien8417alicents character is more complex than this. she has been manipulated and forced to sacrifice her childhood, womanhood into this position. she loves her children yes, but you have to remember they are also a reminder, a product of her abuse. in s1 she was mostly manipulated by Otto, who put fear into her saying that her children will be put to the sword if rhaenyra is on the throne (he was right to an extent, but again, it was a manipulative tactic and alicent really felt like she had no choice). her life has been that. she’s been a body to use, she’s only known to serve, for her duties, for the men around her(her father, viserys). I could go on and on about how tragic and complex her character is but this paragraph has already gotten too far. so no, her arc is not her children. her arc has always been the chains, the cage that she has been locked in, and in s2 we see her come out of that finally. when she comes to rhaenyra, that is a decision she made for herself, probably the only decision she’s ever fully made on her own terms completely. you don’t have to like how the scene played out, but it was very much in character. And also alicent can resent her children, she may love them, yes, but she may resent them too. It’s a very complicated situation. But also, in turn, her children has EVERY right to resent her too. There’s nothing much to do here but accept that this is how their dynamics are like. And why I personally love the targtowers. It’s all so dramatic, and tragic. And I happen to like that. Helaena however is a sweetheart.
The Beesburys are very influential in the Reach and their lord was murdered in the Green's coup. It's possible they kidnapped Otto on his way to Highgarden.
I think you had the most nuanced view on this episode, especially on the meeting between Rhaenyra and Alicent; thanks for that. See you in the next season and all the best from the Netherlands!
The antlered human is called a Green Man. They are a sacred order created when the children of the forest and the first men signed their pact on the isle of faces (the island in the middle of the gods eye lake beside Harrenhall) To guard over the island and its weirwoods. As a major ASOIAF fan, this was fucking incredible. Now I’m more convinced than ever that prince Daemon Targaryens story doesn’t end where history believes it did. 16:00
I was kinda hoping for a battle but the scene where Daemon pledges the riverlands to Rhaenyra was amazing. He really came full circle and his brother would be proud
Rhaenyra never said the whole town , she said their army. Aemond just actually burned a town of innocent people in the beginning of this episode because he's afraid. Ulf is far from funny, he's disrespectful and testing his limits and causing trouble . He sit's at the head of the table feet propped up then later at the foot of the table as if he is in charge. Kill him now because he will make a challenge for the throne. This is war and I'm sorry to say this but innocent people will die, what did Baela and Hugh think was gonna happen. Did Hugh think he got a dragon because Rhaenyra thought she was Oprah .
In regards to the member of the Triarchy in the first scene with the blue beard, Tyroshi are famous for dying their hair bright colors, including blue, green and purple. This was an Easter egg for fans of the books.
@@hoon_sol Yes, this pirate commander is the combination of two separate book characters. One of them being the character Laenor referred to. But throughout the ASOIAF novels there are many Tyroshi characters with brightly dyed hair.
Season 2 only had two big plot points in the story. Blood and Cheese and the Battle for Rook's Rest. This finale came so close to having a third big plot point only to stop just short. And that I think is legitimately frustrating. They actually set this episode up perfectly to cap the season with arguably the largest plot point in the books only to hit the brakes at the very last second. It feels like a tease rather than a finale as a result.
You can't really blame the showrunners for that. They planned for a 10 episode season, and when it was shortened they decided not to change their plans, which I think is a good thing. Benioff and Weiss would have ruined it with a rushed season.
13:48 Ulf is NOT funny! He's annoying as Hell! This is a time for war, not a time to make jokes and be sarcastic towards the crown that made him a dragonrider, not show disrespect! 24:10 I love that your girlfriend has joined for this season's reactions. I enjoy her point of view and agree with her more often. Good all and hope to see her in season 3 and The Hedge Knight!
the best scene is the meeting of Rhaenyra & Daemon, & the vision of the Mother of Dragons, Queen Daenerys Targaryen and her three dragons. Rhaenyra & Daemon become the father & mother of Westeros. I also like Daemon's dialogue that says; "Until death or the end of our story" 😭🤒 Their blood runs from generation to generation. until the promised blood is born. 🐣 & I hope, we can see more of Cregan Stark in the next season. (The North Remember) 🐺 🐺🐲
This is the Daemon I know? Do you understand that Daemon is not just one thing and has many multilayered nuances? He is Daemon in season 1 and this is also Daemon in season 2. He is not always devoted to Rhaenyra, and he is not against her either. What have you been watching all season when they have shown all aspects of his personality?
The ending music being a brilliant blend of the Rhaenicent theme + all the other relevant motifs building to a peak was so good. And all of alicents lines in the meeting have so much depth to dissect but "Come with me" was deranged she really wants to live with her daughter and her wife in some distant corner of the world after abandoning duty.... freak. Love is the death of duty etc.
😭 the last sentence here lmao. but yes. alicent was really bold for that, and rhaenyra basically saying she would but essentially feels it is impossible in this time.
@@vivien8417 she basically did it’s not my fault you lack media literacy. the whole scene is right there in front of your eyes and you still choose to ignore what’s right there.
Book Alicent (who never betrayed her blood) said in the books: “The city is yours, Princess. But you will not hold it long. The rats play when the cat is gone, but my son Aemond will return with fire and blood." Rhaenyra: your sons might be have had places of honor at court- but the blood of my sweet sons is on their hands. Alicent: Bastard blood, shed at war. RIP Alicent, character assassinated by a Rhaenyra fanfic show.
Book Alicent was never the show one, since she was much older and never a friend to Rhaenyra, you need to realize that the show isn't a 1v1 adaption of the book
So the Dance happens in stages. The initial stage is houses around Kingslanding and Dragonstone, the crownland houses like the Darklyns of Duskendale and the Stauntons of Rook's Rest. This is this season. I think if HBO allowed Condal 10 eps this season, we wouldve had a big battle to conclude the initial stage of this war. The war spreads to the great houses, Stark , Lannisters, Hightowers, slowly head to the war. This is the next stage of the war.
Honestly after this episode. What even is the point of Alicent’s character? Like truth be told this could’ve been her closing moments and if we never saw her again I’d be fine. I’m sorry but this entire season A LOT of her scenes have felt like they just needed to insert her in. She doesn’t really add anything to the plot anymore since they wanted to change her character so drastically. Edit: Also what do you mean a son for a son already happened. Rhaenyra literally wants Aemond dead for Luke. Helaena’s son dying doesn’t just end that goal for her lol
That's in george tbf, he made her a central character and then didn't give her or even rhaenyra and actually a lot of characters anything to do so the show has to invent shit if not then this show would be a montage
Not every character needs to service the plot by adding to it so to speak. You can depict a characters fall from grace that allows other characters to arise.
season didn’t meet my expectations I think episode cuts & budget really hurt it, I feel you can’t address it cause ppl think all you want are battles every episode which isn’t the case episode 2 was one of my favorite with no fighting, but with a story this grand & epic skipping over so many battles & only giving us one this season just doesn’t make the 2 year & another 2 year wait worth it, I hope they aren’t as tied down next season & go hard cause now my hype level is definitely lessened for season 3
I've never heard someone be so excited about monkeys!🐒😅 I think HOTD is getting a lot of flak for the finale, but it's just build up, a lot happened and I'm pretty impressed how they filled all the gaps, was it perfect no, did they change a few things, yes...but I'm happy they were even able to get this show made at all and I am here for it🖤
@@slayerr3086: They didn't forget it at all. Helaena is extremely forgiving, almost to the point of being Christ-like in that regard. She expressed to Alicent earlier how she doesn't really have any more right to grief than the smallfolk, she sees the bigger picture and the story as a whole, a wider perspective no doubt brought about by her dreaming. She embodies a bit of the Dr. Manhattan attitude of "without condoning or condemning, I understand", or as the French saying goes, "tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner" ("to understand all is to forgive all"). She sees that they're all just players on a large stage, in Shakespearean fashion, as expressed in both _Macbeth_ (whom as an unrelated side note Stannis Baratheon is modeled after) and The Tempest (which breaks the fourth wall, a bit like Helaena does when explicitly pointing out that they're all just part of a story, might as well say outright that they are "such stuff as dreams are made on", being a dreamer herself).
I couldn't care less about the action. This season's dialogue writing has been illogical. Great acting, music and visuals but yeah no. The writing has been atrocious at points.
Exactly. They want no character development and constant battles. I’m sure HBO are happy to spend billions on continuous battles with no character development or payoff
Rhaenyra already killed a lot of innocents, I don't know why the guy in the reaction is surprised by her strategy, she killed two dozen innocent lowborns for a rider (didn't let them escape Vermithor), she starved King's Landing, she killed an innocent guard to pass him off as Laenor, so on....She killed more innocents than Aegon.
Well because of this weak finale I'm not excited for season 3. The show runners want to drag this story out. They don't have the budget for cool battles scenes and the viewership will continue to drop. So no not excited for season 3, but still curious to see what will happen.
I was thinking the same thing the cliffhanger for the season was not that intense like the season 1 ending so that means we don’t have to bite our nails for season 3 😅
everyone is mad about the changes & no other battles besides in ep 4. but, i think this is pretty good & interesting about what else will change in the next season & the cost is also very expensive. especially for the dragons. so, calm down. 😅👍🏼😙
Really liked the episode but felt little bit underwhelming for season finale. HOTD season 2 felt like The boys season 4 - Build up, build up & build up for EXPLOSIVE next season.
this is confusing bc the actress who plays that role referred to the character as she/her. I’m guessing the show did a gender swap but wanted to keep the fluidity
That Rhaenyra and Alicent scene has probably the worst writting in the show. Painful to watch Alicent's character getting assasinated. And them forgetting Jahaerys is stupid at this point.
They literally assassinated Rhanyra's character from the books and turned her into a female jon snow, then assassinated any personality they gave Alicent and turned her into rhanyra 2.0. At least we still have other interesting characters . No matter how hard they try they can't destroy Aegon or Aemond. They are integral to the story. RIP to Daemon BTW.
I don't think that scene was particularly character assainating as just some tweaks could've made it great instead of its great if you ignore some things, the main problem was definitely daemon and halaena
@@harshahir3176 I didn't see a reason for putting halaena in that vision, I can swear daemon doesn't have a clue who she is😂. That vision to me has destroyed daemon as a character. So now, he knows Rhanyra should be Queen for a prophecy, what reasons will he have to be himself,rash and stubborn again. He gonna turn into "she's my queen" Jon snow Arc.
Dany comes from the bloodline of Rhaenerya and daemon. She truly is the princess who was promised. The one who brought back dragons and magic to the world to ultimately aid in the defense of Westeros. At least show wise, in the books she is still in mereen. All of Westeros would’ve ended without the help of the blood of the dragon
Not sure why people are so surprised, or even disappointed, by that. It was very common in GoT to have episode 9 of a season be where shit went down, with the finale being more of a recap and preparation for the next. Some seasons had a big finale too though, we'll probably get that in S3.
Lohar is introduced as a man. “The sailors are fiercely loyal to him.” But she’s clearly a woman. You even referred to her as a woman. What am I missing?
The actress who plays Lohar referred to the character as she/her. I think they wanted to play on fluidity. I know in the books they are originally male
Experience, probably. I don't run a reaction channel myself, but generally there will be certain triggers, things like words, music, maybe even the footage itself (which some partially obscure and/or phase out). Just some suggestions, I don't really know.
daemon literally choked rhaenyra in the season 1 finale after he groomed her as a teen and tried to ruin her reputation plus he killed his 1st wife, killed an innocent messenger just because he didn't like the content of the message and did a billion other evil things in season 1 lol he actually improved this season
My boy Larys out here trying to convince Aegon to join him on an Ibiza holiday while the company goes under 😭 Alright jokes aside Im honestly really upset that this is the finale we get before waiting 2 years. We ended S1 with everyone preparing for war. How are we ending S2 with everyone still preparing for war? And I don’t wanna hear any of that “character development” bullshit that you people here have been using to justify the slow pace for WEEKS. Like Daemon and Rhaenyra’s storylines this season weren’t utterly repetitive and dull (“wHaT woULd yOu hAvE me dO “) Alicent’s dumbass selling out her entire family who have no idea and are marching to their deaths and Heleana spoiling the entire show. I don't even know how Otto end up in a cell man!! You cannot convince me all this couldn’t have been the first half of a 10 episode season. HBO fumble up big time. To the writers of this show, you suck.
Season 2 felt like a long ass trailer/ For this episode, they wasted so much time having Rheaeys and Alicent staring at each other...we could have had a training sequence with the new dragon riders, Rhaena could have had a longer scene and claimed her dragon instead of stumbling around the whole episode :/
Ngl the boys season 4 and HOTD season 2 feel like a build up to the next season which is gonna be alot bigger and crazier(especially the boys) but hey, that just builds up more of the hype.
I thought the alicent and rhaenyra scene in episode 3 was awful but the their scene together in this episode was even worse. Absolute character assassination. Heinous writing tbh.
Prediction for next seasons- 1. Team black takes kings landing. 2. Aegon has escaped so Rhaenyra thinks Alicent lied to her about sacrificing him. But Alicent vows she will find him and plots war against Aemomd to gain back the trust of the queen. 3. Helaena becomes best friends with Rhaenyra. 4. Alys starts torturing Aemond in Harrenhal. Daemon was redeemed through the visions but Aemond won't be because he is the true villain. 5. Aegon is finally found and brought to King's landing. Rhaenyra executes both him and Larys for treason. 6. Aemond is finally defeated and drowns himself with vhagar in the God's eye. 7. Rhaenyra reigns happily with King Consort Daemon and Queen Consorts Alicent and Mysaria.
@@nikitasingh0412 Then you're very wrong... Prediction 5 and 7 is very dumb, it ain't Disney land story ... we'll get to know in season 3/4 why asoiaf universe gave someone the title of "maegor with tits" and my boy Sunfyre gonna have his tasty meal too.😋
hahaha join the club. i had to wait between seasons of game of thrones. stop crying , you speed watched GOT so now you you wait like the rest of us. cheers
@@yanverb7673 "Only concerning change" The first mistake they made was to change Alicents age completly. From season 1 we should've known that this story was gonna go nowhere near where the book is
Who the hell are those people with that woman admiral? It's like they just came out of nowhere, and IMO they spent way too much time on them with that dopey mud fight, etc...
This was neither a good episode nor a good finale. And the rhaenyra and alicent scene was one of the most stupid and unnecessary scenes. They need to change writers because they suck.
The Rhaenyra/Daemon scene was just stupid. Last episode the Riverland Lords hated Daemon and made it clear they were not swearing to him, but to Rhaenyra, then this episode they are all behind Daemon and willing to betray Rhaenyra for Daemon... just stupid writing.
Many of them is not aware that Daemon is planning to become the King Himself many of that Assemble are Men' s at Arms there are only there because liege lords assemble them also all Riverlords still Hated Daemon and still will follow Rhaenyra MAN SOME VIEWERS HERE INCLUDING YOU HAVE LESS SENSE OF UNDERSTANDING A CONTEXT IN EVENTS UNFOLDING MANY OF THOSE CHEERING WITH DAEMON IS JUST PUMP UP FOR FIGHT DUHHH....
@@harshahir3176 because someone tell her that Daemon is Backstabbing her when literally Daemon is just making a army in the name of Rhaenyra and also THAT LINE THAT " THEY SERVE ME" IN A SENSE OF WAY OF GENERAL TO HIS SUBORDINATE ie : SOLDIERS , THEN THE GENERAL IS SUBORDINATE TO KING OR PRESIDENT WHY THIS SIMPLE PROTOCOL IS HARD TO UNDERSTAND TO COMMONFOLK HERE IN SOCMED.
Glad you guys enjoyed this episode. I however didnt exactly love it. So many terrible moments throughout this episode. So through all of daemon haunting he still wants the throne n the army for himself it aint until a witch gives him a vision then he is suddenly team rhaenyra…… Helena suddenly has control of her visions and can see ur brothers death but she cant see her own sons death….what? I refuse to believe this is the same alicent from season1 she genially is ok with rhaenyra killing her kids n still wants peace with her after daemon killed her grandson…..not to mention she gives away what aemond is planning so she is effectively giving a cheat code in the show….when in the book daemon was the one to secure kings landing through cunning….. a very mix episode for a very mixed season…… Team Green is still winning the war and finally the blacks are assembling their armies.
The season turned out to be an absolute failure. So I will say for myself that season 8 Game of Thrones was not always logical, but at least full of events, and in House of the Dragon there was no logic or plot advancement as such. There were simply no battles except for the episode with Rhaenys. We were shown an arrow in the sky and Cole on a horse, which meant a won battle. Apparently, the team staging battle scenes quit HBO, I can’t explain it any other way... Disgusting cheap graphics. Honestly, the prophecy scared me, apparently the entire budget went to dragons. You can’t look at the plastic armor of the Lannisters without tears after the hand-made masterpieces from the previous series. And the plot... Would there have been a plot here? Seriously, the first season ended when the two sides were about to fight. The second season ended the same way. They were still going to... All that was remembered after eight episodes was the murder of Aegon's child, the death of Rhaenys and the taming of wild dragons. Daemon and Alicent were simply destroyed as characters. The writers sent the first one on a trip-tour for the whole season, turning the proud dragon into a pathetic idiot who was shut up by a child. The second one, from a religious woman who loves her children, was made into a concerned traitor with the habits of a sociopath who runs away to her friend for fan service. The eternally suffering Rhaenyra, who did absolutely nothing the whole season, and at the end decided to ult and give the main weapon of her family to the vagabonds (this will be an epic failure for her) and stand in the frame with a sword. A truly "great queen". I really find it funny when they try to compare her to Daenerys. For the sake of drama, for some reason they ruined the relationship between Aegon and Aemond, although they always fought together against Rhaenyra's children, and flew together to battle Rhaenys. There was no food riot under the greens. Guess three times who will start it))) Thank goodness that at least Jace, Baela, Helaena, Aegon and Adam got an adequate storyline in this chaos. Apparently, the neural network that writes dialogues instead of people for this season sometimes failed. Many scolded Miguel Sapochnik because of the Game of Thrones finale, but nevertheless his handwriting was well felt in Season 1 of House of the Dragon. After his departure, the series turned into a battle of the great martyr against the "usurper" with primitive dialogues, cheap graphics and an absolute inconsistency between the scriptwriters, who supervised individual episodes and, ignoring the characteristics of the character from the previous episode, molded something of their own from him in the new one. There was no movement on the plot, because HBO decided to make money and announced that they would try to make many seasons.
What an absolute TERRIBLE season. This show is turning into nothing but fan service. WTF was that talk between Alicent and Rhaenyra? WHY is Rhaena getting Sheepstealer?? WHY did Halaena outright spoil that Aegon regains the crown and Aemond dies?? Terrible writing!
I do agree with you, aemond was shown very weak here which I think spoils his character development especially If he is going to fight daemon with caraxes.
Worst: GOT S8 GOT S1 GOT S7 GOT S2 GOT S5 HOTD S2 HOTD S1 GOT S3 GOT S6 GOT S4 Best: While slightly lower than HOTD S1, if anything this season made me adore the show even more. It did everything it should do for me, with I think the best dialogue and music of the entire GOT universe. Exceptional cinematography in that last scene too... already listened to that music quite a few times. From that end, S3 is going to be off the walls inSANE! It hurts my very soul that we have to wait, but it's going to be PEAAAAAAK!!! Great reactions to the season, and I'm so glad you both feel positively about it- seen a lot of negative reactions to this season, and I couldn't disagree more.
Excited for a potential tier list video! For me, Alicent is one of my all time faves. Aemond too. I enjoyed the greater focus on Mhysaria, Larys, Baela, Jace, and Rhaena too. Aegon as well! Basically, all characters were great for me (even Daemon lol)
Let’s just call it what it is - a shit fucking finale. The entire season was trash anyway, but the way that they massacred Book Alicent is just hurtful. This fan service for Rhaenicent shippers is abysmal. Also, the GoT tie-in in Daemon’s vision was trash. Absolute filler shit; they could’ve done so much better.
