House of the Dragon S2E01 live Q&A discussion

Discussing House of the Dragon S2E01! No spoilers for future episodes.
Livestreams every week at 10:10pm Eastern time Sundays, plus weekly videos!

[Malforian]

I also thought the discomfort Alicent had in the bath was realizing that the new helpers she has are now from Laris so she's never free from people watching her, kind of trapped in a cage she ultimately made

[rissjohnson]

One of my favorite little moments from this episode was Aegon picking at his fingernails while sitting on the iron throne. He only started doing it after Otto started interfering with him. Otto makes Aegon anxious the same way Otto made Alicent anxious. It’s very possible that Aegon picked that habit up from his mother. The generational trauma goes hard in this show

[_juanadecastilla]

Today i took my first “season 2 nap with AltShiftX talking in the background” and i slept like a baby

[Hubabuba]

I really love the depiction of Aegon's relationship with Jahearys. It really looks like an emotionally neglected son making up for his childhood by just wanting the little guy to have as much fun "thanks to dad" as possible.

[rn-]

Blood said "a son for a son", the only way he could've know that is if Daemon told them. It's not ambiguous at all in my opinion, and the reason they cut away is to not spoil the ending.

[TheSmithPlays]

Nothing better than hearing Alt Shift X throw the most subtle daggers at GoT season 7 - “and why wouldn’t the dragons be scared of the white walkers, they have ice javelins”😭😭😭

[ejax]

1:00:00 Actually made me cry last night when she says Luc's name and recognizes that he was still the son of her best friend no matter how far they've strayed.

[rankalot]

I gotta be honest, the biggest thing other than the show coming back that I’ve been looking forward to is your episode breakdowns. It’s good to be back!

[Jam-goob]

I can hear the smile on your face in the beginning of the video, we are so fucking back

[dannypapes]

I also felt that it was as too easy for them to infiltrate, but then I thought about some of the context.

1. Larys has just replaced the whole staff with loyalists, so suspicion is low.
2. Aegon is drinking on the throne so much of the kingsguard is with him.
3. Obviously, Criston is with Alicent.

[JuniperArtemis]

As far as Helaena not screaming, the human fear response is fight, flight, or freeze (which has only recently been added by psychologists and experts) and I think Helaena falls into the freeze category and just wants to hide and stay quiet and calmly take her other child and leave as soon as she can to minimize the damage around her.

[Rupert_Astralnauta]

You can tell that Glidus it's not around by how many times Shift allows himself to say Secret Tunnel.

[Leakampff]

The stand out of this episode for me was 2 things.
1. Production value, WOW did the sets, costumes, choices of landmarks and scenery etc really open up these locations massively, it felt so lived in. Also shoutout to Rhaenyra's maroon leather jacket, it was stunnnning.
And 2.
The acting, this episode was a slow build for sure but every single performance felt reallly complex and sincere. Aegon made me laugh out loud multiple times, and WOW did Emma D'arcy command such energy in every second they were on screen as Rhaenyra, which was surprisingly scarce!

Love love loved the episode.

[TheHonoredMadman]

The cheese actor was great, i like that he was eating cheese off a knife lol.

[ayakid]

Criston was busy clapping cheeks while the kids were either attacking or being attacked. Some kingsguard lmao

[stevesmith]

A son for a son sounds better than a backup heir for a backup heir.

[Dubious_Neon]

Ratting dogs were used IRL for sniffing out rats and also hunting them. They were typically Terriers.

[ankejl]

God this episode was excellent. I think the blood and cheese change worked really well actually. And I think the continuing theme of how we imagine history to be the result of human intent, but it really is the result of mistakes, misunderstandings and conflicting interests is excellent. Like, Cheese wanted that money, he was in debt, so of course he was going to lie about knowing his way around the upper floors and of course they never would've gone after Aemond if Daemon had suggested killing any male Targaryen would get them paid, if killing a defenseless child rather than the best fighter in Westeros would get them equal pay.

[Starkiller]

I understand why so many people want a new theme, however, i am glad they are sticking to this one. Not only can i not imagine another one that can match it, but it's also become for GoT what the Star Wars theme is for Star Wars. It will be empty without it, mark my words. It also makes me super happy after waiting for a long time to hear the HBO sound followed by this.

[aknol]

By far the best content for game of thrones on YouTube. I'll be clicking on all the videos. I love that keep these as spoiler free as possible (I've not read the books). Thanks doing these.