Game of Thrones

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This was actually a pretty good episode on it's own, but as a series the narrative feels so disjointed and I feel like we are missing crucial character arcs in-between all of these time skips, most likely because we are. Also there are some stark (no pun intended) contradictions in how things work in between episodes. Like, Sir Criston Cole as expected got away scott free with openly murdering a guy but Harwyn Strong is sent away for assaulting Sir Criston because now people decide to adhere to laws all of a sudden.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

For what it's worth I actually did like several scenes in this episode and once again the acting has been pretty great overall. That said, the biggest thing on my mind is: What is it with GOT and HOTD and making the Kingsguard the most fucking useless, incompetent people ever? Like, they don't even try to stop Alicent from harming anyone even when Rhaenyra is struggling with her.

[Dr. Insomniac]

If I had a nickel for every time a Matt Smith character got married while orchestrating a faked death plot in the beginning of October, I'd have 2 nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird it happened twice.

And yeah, I can get Viserys not lifting a finger because he's just too mentally checked out (he didn't even remember what Alicent's name was this episode), but the Kingsguard just standing there while an heir almost died was dumb.

Also, the show's gotta stop reminding me of South Park. The crab people and the uncle fucking were bad enough. And why is Aegon going to de-age in the next time skip? He looks like Draco Malfoy now.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've just come to accept that the HBO GOT Universe just has a different set of laws that allows for acts of violence to be dished out suddenly from one party to another. People may raise some questions on it but nobody faces any sort of legal repercussions for it except for a few random times when the story decides that it actually matters every now and then. Criston Cole can beat a a noble to death and be promoted for it, and Prince Daemon can cut half a guy's head off from behind instead of having actual Kingsguard officials reprimand him per the King's orders who have the actual authority to execute people in such cases. On that note, I have also come to except that the HBO King's Guard will forever be the most useless group of glorified bodyguards in existence.

I actually enjoyed the episode, BTW. Just couldn't resist the urge to poke fun at how the writers seem to think that Westeros has no laws that they take seriously other than those of succession and inheritance.

I was waiting for the dinner scene to be adapted, and personally I really like how it was handled. I kind of feel like it was a missed opportunity to establish some personal tension between Daemon and Aemond because....reasons.

What I don't like is how the show, through another time jump, conveniently passed over everyone's reactions to Rhaenyra marrying Daemon. Like, even by the show's own logic it was a huge deal in the early season that Daemon even "might" have gotten intimate with his neice. Now Rhaenyra and her Uncle waltz into King's landing as husband and wife, having married presumably almost immediately after Laenor's apparent death, and it's treated like the most normal thing ever.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Show, please settle with the SP references. They're getting distracting.



But yeah, great episode. Kudos to Paddy Considine, especially at the end. And yeah, the time skips are still frustrating, because I know they're trying to do I Claudius with Derek Jacobi and how that show went through mountains of time skips between every other episode, except that show knew when to pace itself and show important details while glossing over the gaps, but I'm slowly getting used to it. And judging from interviews, the cast assure that the show will ease up on the time skips next season now they're at the start of the Dance of the Dragons.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

One thing I do really want to give this show credit for is in how it really doesn't try to play up one side as more heroic or villainous than the other. Game of Thrones may have had moral ambiguity but nobody would question that the Starks were our heroes and that Cersei was a villain from start to finish.

Knowing how the broad strokes of the story play out and seeing how the show has gone so far, they clearly have committed to actually forgoing that traditional narrative crutch and will show that each side is capable of being equally as conniving and horrendous as the other as much as some of them can be virtuous at times.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, I remember a GRRM quote right around the second half of the show when he said he didn't think the story had any real villains, and I laughed at that thinking "When did the Mountain have a sympathetic POV or any sign of moral greyness? Or Ramsay? Or Walder Frey?" While this show's been a lot murkier on that front. Particularly with how they've gone with Alicent. Been really liking the way both of her actresses have expressed her character arc this whole season.

Another note, Viserys' obsession with the Prince Who Was Promised prophecy, which I found funny the first time he mentioned it in the show because we all know what happens there, becomes tragic here. He spent most of his reign believing in this vision, believing in it so much that his mutterings of it will accidentally split the Targaryen dynasty apart, and it's all going to be for nothing.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, on the one hand the final scene with Rhaenys on dragonback is a show original scene that essentially has her be the one to deliver the news to Rhaenyra of the Hightower usurping of her throne. It may or may not create a plot hole later on depending on how the writers accommodate the story to deal with the change, which was clearly done to be more dramatic for viewers of the show.

On the other hand, I won't lie, it was pretty damn successful at doing it's job for me. I'm sure some people will find logical issues here and there, but this is one of those scenes (and mostly the whole episode) that was done well enough that I can honestly overlook certain other issues.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Not sure what to make of this referencing the crack baby basketball episode of SP. That came out of nowhere.

And this is going to be a really anal nitpick, but I just couldn't get over how Olivia Cooke is only like 2 or 3 years older than the actors playing her children, and it shows more in this episode than the last one. It took a while to register to me that Alicent already had 3 fully adult children.

But yeah, the Rhaenys scene was cool. Though I kinda wish this episode had more oomph to it like all the other penultimate episodes of GOT seasons.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I have to say, looking at the preview, I'm eager to see how they handle one of the most iconic scenes from the book. It's going to be pretty memorable and remind people that this is still Game of Thrones, and shit will go down.

[Dr. Insomniac]

The show already has its own version of "No! You guys weren't supposed to root when Dany murdered Sam's shitty dad! You were supposed to be horrified and think she was turning evil!"

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Gotta hand it to the writers and directors in this case, this was a great finale. As a whole, this season is of very mixed quality to me, but when it's good, it's peak television just like the early seasons of GOT.

Very interesting choice they made with the final confrontation as well:

Spoiler

In the book, which is meant to have some historical inaccuracies, it's suggested by various sources that Aemond fully intended to kill Luke outside of Storm's End. The show gets to make different decisions and fill in the blanks since nothing is ever 100% confirmed in the book which is an in-universe recounting of events by an Arch Maester. This actually grays the lines a bit by making Aemond lose control of Vhaegar. It's not hard to believe that Aemond killed Luke with full intention in Fire and Blood because he's only ever presented as a one-dimensional ass-hole. Even Otto and his mother give him shit about this since he basically pulled a Joffrey and ignited a War. But it seems like the show will be adding layers to him here which is very reassuring. Also, I was anticipating this scene ever since I read it years ago, and it did not disappoint.

[close]

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, I like how this show's a lot grayer than GOT was. Like how even though Aegon's clearly in the Joffrey mold, he at least has some self-awareness to know he shouldn't be king, and he only becomes one because his Hightower family forces him into it.

That said, how much of that's due to the writing and not the actors? Because I saw in an article that most of Daemon's more human moments in the show came from Matt Smith improvising or ad-libbing instead of sticking to the script.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

A lot of it is the actors, for sure, but it is clear that the show is intentionally being written to be more morally gray. The ASOIAF books are VERY morally ambiguous but much of that ambiguity was oversimplified in GOT making it pretty clear cut who good guys and bad guys were. F&B by design doesn't have that level of detail behind it, but it does still present both sides on equal terms in regard to having both virtuous and abysmal aspects to them. That said, characters, or what little amount of character that can be found there, are essentially just one-dimensional interpretations of what various sources present them as or think that they might have been like. So this is the opposite case from GOT and the showrunners have to do the heavy lifting to add to the source material. The results are entirely a mixed bag but stuff like this and episode 8 before it are mostly examples of them doing a good job of expanding on that material.

[Dr. Insomniac]

And speaking of Joffrey, a lot of HOTD's casual viewers looking for something to watch/re-watch while waiting for season 2 will surely be pissed.