House of the Dragon

House of the Dragon season 2, episode 3. This is where the internet (at least the side of it that has read Fire and Blood) believes that Rhaenys is going to die. That said, the last episode really didn’t do much to progress the actual war part of this war so I suppose we will see. Honestly I think what made Game of Thrones so compelling was the political conversations and moves being made, that occasionally led to battle. But House of the Dragon really isn’t doing much of either. They seem to be spending more time on the interpersonal relationships of each side which were not relevant parts of the book at all. Alicent isn’t even mentioned for like 100 pages of the dance so why am I seeing her so much? Anyway just further proof that the writing team doesn’t understand their source material.

Titled The Burning Mill episode 3 opens some little Lannister dipshits getting themselves killed. Because that’s what happens when you declare for a little rapist usurper. That said, the sea of dead bodies really shows what the impact of this war is going to be.

Rhaenyra continues to be kind, and beautiful and perfect as she buries Arryk and Erryk together. Rhaenys has the thought and sight to know that Otto was not responsible for the attack on Rhaenyra. She encourages Rhaenyra to go see Alicent…which is definitely a choice. Also Rhaenys comparing Alicent purposefully poisoning her kids against Rhaenyra for YEARS and usurping her throne is not even remotely comparable to Daemon going rogue and having Jaehrys killed.

Nothing makes me angrier than Criston as hand. And now we are finally talking about Harrenhaul, the place everyone says is the key to the war. Yet this is the first anyone has moved on it. Aegon is eager to hop on his dragon and fight, proving once again that he is too stupid to be king.

We see Seasmoke making a lot of noise which really points to Leanor being dead…which is a really huge bummer but I doubt it is something that they are going to address in any real way.

Daemon lands in Harrenhaul and honestly they bend the knee pretty easily. The Strongs hold no love for Larys and seem to welcome Daemon.

Alicent’s brother isn’t having it with crispy cole either and I love that. I have a strong feeling I get to watch him die very soon and it will fill me with such joy. I also love that this dipshit took all of the best knights out of the Red Keep and they didn’t take a dragon with them.

Even the men fighting for Rhaenyra and her claim want her to hide herself away. Let them fight in her absence. It's sexist in itself. I love that Rhaenys is her hand, the queen that never was is the perfect person to help her.

Corlys being prickly about naming his daughter heir to Driftmark because she doesn’t know anything about sailing doesn’t sit right with me, because whose job would it have been to teach her my dude? She doesn’t have a dragon so why didn’t you put all of your effort into teaching her how to sail?

One scene of Alicent actually talking to her daughter is not enough to get me to like her. Heleana may forgive her but I do not.

Aegon truly is next level delusional. Comparing yourself to Aegon the Conqueror…bud let’s have some common sense here. Trusting Larys is also batshit crazy. This man has never made a decision that wasn’t completely braindead.

More time with the smallfolk for some reason. To just not see them all of season 1, and then spend so much time with them this season seems like a complete tonal shift. And we never see these people again. Like if we were following a single small folk family through this war it would be a lot more impactful than just randomly seeing these people. Aegon going to a random tavern to drink with the smallfolk is an insanely bad decision. And this drunk idiot finds Aemond and we are once again reminded that Aegon was his brother's biggest bully.

My sweet Rhaenyra looks absolutely heartbroken over having to send her children away. She is such a good mom, and she knows that she probably won’t ever see them again. In her loneliness she reads Alicent’s message.

Baela gave them a good scare. Alicent’s brother was about to piss himself. She did well at following her queen's orders. But my Rhaenyra is still so broken over losing her son she is not willing to put Baela and Jace in danger…but she needs to.

God they are really forcing this Alicent and Rhaenyra relationship, as I predicted. It would make 0 sense for them to meet, or for Rhae to even want to talk to her. That ship sailed before the end of season 1 and now 3 episodes into season 2 after the body count has risen we are expected to believe that Rhae is still stupid enough to think she can broker peace? Sorry nope. Seeing these two interact makes me want to vomit. Alicent is so aggressively, violently stupid. She maintains to Rhaenyra’s face that Viserys changed his mind on his deathbed. She needs to have her head slammed very hard into something stone. Bad writing. Bad writing. Bad writing. Good lord, that was a painful scene to watch.

A whole lot of nothing has happened. We have now mentioned Harrenhaul like 50 times, Daemon is now there but nothing has happened. Cole is on the move and Baela had her dragon on his ass and nothing happened. This is now the 3rd episode of nothing happening and it's getting really irritating. They are dragging this out when 1)Things happened much faster in the book and 2)Things HAVE to move faster in a visual medium and the structure of this is simply bad. This is poorly laid out, and poorly executed. We spent like 20 minutes on Rhaenyra and Alicent for nothing. We as the audience know that Viserys was not talking about his son Aegon, we as the audience already know that Alicent is an idiot. Having a long ass scene just so we can watch Rhaenyra and Alicent realize that Alicent is an idiot is a waste of time.