Jim is finally here with Chris and I, and we got the crew together, officially. This episode did a lot of good with character development, but the ending didn’t please everybody. I still want to know why there is a day dedicated to giving a child its middle name. Seems frivolous. As always, anything written in bold is written by Kent.
1. Viserys is having such a unique reign. This has to be the first king we have seen where he seems fairly liked by his followers, but life is complicated. What one aspect of his reign as king do you think he is struggling with the most?
Chris: I agree with Jim, Viserys is desperate to be liked. He also has a temper when pushed, and is slowly rotting away. Temperamentally it is his desire to be liked, physically, I don’t think you come back from rotting away one piece at a time like he is. (Dude, he’s got King money. Spend the 6 million dollars and rebuild him.)
Jim: First off, glad to finally be able to contribute.. first two weeks of Viserys’ reign were busy for me. The obvious answer they are throwing at us is that he struggles with shows of power, for fear of war. He bristled at the idea of engaging the Crab Feeder, or even the show of force by the gold-cloaks. Despite the successes of the gold cloaks, and the eventual success of Daemon against the Crabfeeder, Viserys has a fear of escalation. This brings me to what I think is his true shortcoming, the desire to please and be liked by everyone. You can see it in his answers, his liberal use of games and tourneys for the public, and his disdain for confrontation of any sort. (Huh, so we do have a Jim after all. As I read your answer, all I could think of is the song “Heavy is the Head” by Zac Brown Band and Chris Cornell.)
Kent: I don’t disagree with Jim and Chris, but that would make for a boring read. Oh yeah, it’s also because it’s not the number one answer. If we were playing Family Feud, they’d have #2. The #1 answer is the conflict between duty and being a good father. His call of duty…..no not that one, has been ingrained in him since he was very young. I think he mentioned that he and Aemma were arranged to be married when they were 10 and 7. Even as king, he knows that he can only change or alter the rules so much. He took his shot by naming Rhaen as his heir. But he also knows that she needs to marry. I just don’t think that he is aware that Rhaenyra and Alicent had some feelings toward each other and he royally (get it?) F’d it up. The insistence on making her marry doesn’t please him, and he probably doesn’t really like many of the potential suitors available.
2. Rhaenyra is the heir for now, but is also seemingly used as a pawn at times while having some unofficial duties given the customs. The big one is marriage. Who do you think she will choose to marry?
Chris: Although I know a bit about the future (of the show) I don’t know if she does marry. If she had her choice of suitors it would have been Alicent. Edit.: Welp she does marry someone, since she has a son, but who she has him with, I am not sure. (Chris is a witch…..warlock. He knows the future. We must burn him before he destroys us all.)
Jim: I don’t believe we have been introduced to her husband to be, her main love interest will be Ser Criston Cole, as it’s been blatantly foreshadowed each episode with their glances at one another. You could make an argument for literally any lord of the realm as a potential, including her 2-year-old brother, but since Viserys seems to have let her decide, I doubt it’ll end up as her brother. If I had to make a singular guess, I’ll say we have not seen the last of Jason Lannister, and he’ll be my choice, just not with a ton of conviction. (If we can make it through the next blog without marrying off any children, I would be super happy. Also, I don’t know if you missed the memo, but his name is Ser Crispin. The writers seem to forget this.)
Kent: Either Lannister would bring me joy, and I love to hear more of The Rock. Alcatraz and Dwayne ain’t got nothing on Casterly Rock. What about the dude with the boot? He could be fun. But as I suggested on this week’s episode of Kenter At Your Own Risk podcast, I am hoping that Ser Harrold Westerling has a son and that is who Rhaen ends up with. Ser Harwin “Breakbones” Strong would be my backup choice. Look at that name. That’s almost a porn name.
3. Daemon didn’t have a ton of screen time until the end. Then he was a fantasy Keyser Soze. My question is why did he beat the hell out of the dude delivering the message from the King? (I’m waiting for the answer to be super obvious so I feel like a moron for asking it.)
Chris: He thinks he will win even without Viserys’ help, never mind the fact that he has been losing steadily for the past three years. He sees Viserys’ help as a threat and a scolding, “Don’t worry Daemon, I will bail you out of your shitshow” kind of thing
Jim: He was angry that it was so obvious that even Viserys knew how bad it was going. I truly think that it was a suicide mission that he luckily pulled off, because failing for his brother to see was the last thing he wanted.
Kent: Okay, so perhaps the answer was super obvious to everyone but me. Forgive me. But let me rant a bit here. The whole thing with Daemon, they could have spent 3 extra minutes on what was already a long episode, and they could have elaborated on 3 things. 1. Him beating up the messenger, perhaps give him a few lines so he looks more like a petulant whiny little brother. 2. Actually provide a clearer shot of who was riding the damn dragon. You bring back dragons, the least that you can do is emphasize who was riding it, because he may be Rhaen’s new beau. 3. The showdown between Crab Feeder and Daemon. More on that in a hot minute.
4. Out of the 3 main characters, Viserys, Rhaenyra, and Daemon, who do you think gained the most and who do you think took the biggest loss?
Chris: Daemon. Even though Viserys came to help, he still merced the shit out of the Crabfeeder (R.I.P.), and will be seen as the heroic warrior
Jim: I would say it’s Viserys. Even though Daemon pulled off the unexpected victory, in the end, Viserys got his male heir to the throne that he truly wanted. While it puts him in a tougher spot with Rhaenyra, it’s the thing he dreamed of and wanted for so long.
Kent: Nobody wanted to tackle who took the biggest loss? Should I just edit it out of the question? Nah. Daemon gained the most. He quintessentially went from being the leader of the Suicide Squad to a total badass that showed just how damn good he is as a fighter, and how poor of a shot those archers are. I mean, come on, there are how many archers trying to hit a white-haired dude. Y’all deserved what you got. Also, Daemon’s dragon, Caraxes, squashed a dude in the beginning. That was the scene for me. Now Daemon can save a little face, but inside is going to eat away at him. I feel sorry for Mysaria because her ass is gonna take a violent pounding.
As for who took the biggest loss, it is more complicated. Rhaen came off so weak through most of this, and for good reason. It helped highlight just how badass she looked coming back to camp covered in boar’s blood as she is dragging it. And for that reason alone, she got the win in that she gets to choose who she marries. It was a rough first half for her, but she walks out of this not too bad. Vis was just a drunken mess, not sure who to trust. His best bet is potentially to trust Lord Lyonel Strong, who I think is either a really decent dude, or he’s this show’s variation on a Varys type character. I don’t mind the drunken fool aspect, I applaud it. It makes me miss Robert Baratheon all the more. What really is a big loss was the hunt. Vis, you came off like a punk-ass bitch. Having guys hold the stag so you could stumble your way in for the kill, but needed to do it twice, and the whole time you were lamenting the race of the stag/hart. For a guy all about putting on a spectacle as the king and being a crowd pleaser, he really failed here. He failed with that badass weapon from Jason Lannister. By the way, props to his attempt with Rhaen. He did everything right and still got shot down.
5. Now that we’ve jumped approximately 3 years, what is your early perception of Alicent as Viserys’ wife/Queen?
Chris: She is a good Queen, and has a shitty father. Otto is like a cross between Littlefinger and Tywin. (But he lacks their presence and charisma. Otto is a character that they need to sorely flesh out soon, in my opinion.)
Jim: I can’t say as I can tell. I haven’t seen her do much as queen other than producing a male heir and possibly a second. Other queens in the GoT history (or canon future I suppose is the right term) visibly did more with their reign, despite most having limited time there. Margaery Tyrell aided the poor in her time and helped introduce the High Sparrow, and of course, Cersei Lannister was noteworthy. I just haven’t seen anything from Alicent. I partially agree with Chris, as she has a shady father. He is very reminiscent of Littlefinger, but I don’t get the cutthroat and violent Tywin vibes necessarily, but time will tell. (He is more on the manipulative side, and not even being shy or sly about it. Petyr would approve. My only question is does Otto eventually seek out Lord Stark’s current wife?)
Kent: I like her. She was put in a difficult situation in many ways. Just because it may be preferable to being poor in the kingdom, for example, she still has a heavy burden. And I kinda like her. But what does she have against Minstrels??? The dude was just trying to sing his heart out and she shut the shit down. Made me sad. So for now, I am giving her a C minus.
Bonus – Did the battle work well for you or disappoint you or are you somewhere in the middle?
Chris: It did not work. I fell asleep three minutes from the end and had to rewatch it. Too much smoke and chaos, and not enough defining shots. Miguel Sapochnik (the just stepped-down showrunner) directed some of the best action episodes of the first series, they should have given him this one
Jim: It was a great action scene, and of course despite it truly feeling like a suicide mission due to his emotional state, we knew he was not going to die, as Daemon has been be set up to be the true protagonist of the season. So without a real feeling of unease as to him surviving, it was lacking real gravity. I will say that while I am quite enjoying HotD, it is lacking the true feeling that no one is safe that its predecessor GoT had. It needs a truly unexpected character to die quickly, to give me that feeling that I had with GoT. I’m not sure they should wait for the much talked about “9th” episode, which always has a drastic change that sets up the next season. (Ned Stark’s beheading, Battle of Blackwater Bay, Red Wedding etc…) (I didn’t anticipate CF’s death, but yeah, we need a death soon. Bold prediction, in bold print, Ser Criston is the one who’s gonna get got unexpectedly. There is an obvious death incoming, I assume with Viserys, but that isn’t one that gets us talking.)
Kent: The more I thought about this, the more annoyed I got with the whole premise. I’m not trying to nitpick here, but what the hell? 3 years you’re just flying your dragon, getting a few kills. These pirates are ruining the sea trade routes while hiding in caves on land. How are they really causing a problem? We really needed Euron to just show up and show them how to do some cool pirate fighting. To go back to a previous statement, I didn’t know until rewatching it a third time, who was riding the damn dragon. That should have been clarified. And suddenly, we’re gonna be a stickler on time and not show the fight between Daemon and Crab Feeder??? What the hell? I can’t be the only person that was anticipating that more than any other aspect of this episode. As it was, I feel like we lost a potentially cool character in Crab Feeder. If you aren’t gonna show the death, then just let him escape and lay low for 2 seasons. On first viewing this was fun. Then the more that you think about it, it became just an inane popcorn flick scene with very little substance. Sorry if I ruined this for you, but it really let me down.
Also, this show really needs to start getting us some side characters that we can immediately fall in love with. Game of Thrones did that so well with so many characters. Yes, I know that this is only the third episode. I am gonna be patient because I like the show. I am just not really gravitating to any side characters yet aside from Westerling. I also quite enjoyed Lady Ceira Lannister running her mouth. I need more scenes with her and cake.