House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 8 Breakdown

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[TheBobbyMetcalf]

Convenient alicent doesn't want power after its completely stripped from her

[michaelf]

I like how Aemond was like "all boats in and out of the city must be searched!" and then later that episode Queen Alicent and her kingsguard left by boat to Dragonstone to talk to Rhaenyra. Effective policymaking!

[MourningCoffeeMusic]

Alicent: “Run away with me, Rhaenyra.”

😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

[TheElizondo]

There were definitely two episodes missing this season, one between episodes 5 and 6 depicting the atrocities comited by the Blackwoods in the Riverlands, the interception of Otto Hightowers party, and an introduction of Daeron in Oldtown. And an episode after the finale with two battles the main battle with all the armies and the naval battle in which Aegon and Viserys ship is intercepted.

[TreiberSeptim]

This was so clearly an 8th episode in a 10 episode season.

[RyanMan]

In the Godswood, Alfred Broome is talking to Daemon. With subtitles on, you hear someone whisper "traitor", to Broome, to which he responded "Did you hear that?", and Daemon responded with, "This place will have

Also, may be callback to Bran when he uses the Wierwood Trees to view history and keeps saying stuff people hear, like Ned and Hodor

[LordTomServo]

Rhaenyra: A son for a son...

Alicent: Reluctantly, I agr...wait...your lot murdered Jaehaerys. You're getting more than just a son, was not the debt paid?

Rhaenyra: Yea...let me get back to you on this one, we may need to go to arbitration. Sorry bout that.

[richardroberts]

that was legit the most frustrating season finale of just about any show I've ever watched

[GodzillaX]

I geeked at the green man, so spooky and mysterious. Disappointed we didn't see Vhagara go full kaiju this ep, would've been a great way to show the horror dragon riders can inflict

[haplon]

the s2 writers kind of forgot about GoT s8. i guess arya killing the night king is subverting our expectations for 2 shows worth of material now!

[simonmurphy]

The whole season felt like it was strung out to avoid the actual war starting properly. Two episodes of visions in melted castles would have been plenty.

[LostInTheWoods]

We needed the money shot. Imagine if at the end of season 1 of GOT Danny doesn’t hatch her eggs, robbed isn’t crowned king in the north, and Tyrion isn’t named hand. But all this is done in the first of episode of season 2.

Changes the whole feeling of the season.

[gathenhielm]

Anyone else feel like a bunch of stuff happened in this season but nothing really happened?

[Cglgnd]

It ironic Otto said Daemon would be the next Maegor but it was really Aemond.

[jamesreed]

"How many eyes does Bloodraven have?"

A thousand eyes plus... 2?
Wait, that's not right 😅

[StefunnyStrange]

Here are my 4 biggest gripes and why I want to take HBO or Ryan Condal outside and fight them in the back alley:

#1. I wish the show runners would STOP bringing up the white walkers! We all know that the white walkers were defeated in LITERAL HOURS and by a 90 pound girl with a dagger no less, so the writers reminding us of this constantly just HURTS! Tywin F*cking Lannister had a bigger impact on Westeros than the white walkers FFS! It should be Tywin or even Robert Baratheon who is haunting the dreams of Targaryens because GOT already proved to fans that the white walkers ain’t sh*t. So unless they can find a clever way to fix Season 8, retcon it or do another show showing the white walkers are still alive and that the night king operates through Bran or some sh*t, stop trying to gaslight fans into believing that the apocalypse is in the future when we ALL SAW what happened. Not to mention that the inclusion of the white walkers hindered Daemon’s arc because now fans don’t know if he is supporting Rhaenyra because he’s changed and because of all the vision therapy he’s had all season or because he now knows about the apocalypse. It makes all the previous visions feel like a waste and it makes Daemon’s arc of finally standing by Rhaenyra feel kinda cheap.

#2. Rhaenyra Freaking Targaryen. Lord knows why the writers thought a more peaceful, calm, rational Rhaenyra would make for a more entertaining story than the Rhaenyra GRRM crafted. The woman lost her son, lost her throne, lost Rhaenys, lost her two most loyal sworn swords, lost her father, lost her baby and came within an inch of being ASSASSINATED and that STILL wasn’t enough for her to want blood or to become a bit ruthless. It doesn’t feel like those events even happened. We should be seeing a gradual escalation in her brutality but instead it feels more like a yo-yo. When I saw her feed those bastards to The Bronze Fury I was so pumped but this darkness in Rhaenyra didn’t last which was disappointing. They constantly tease fans with these intense face expressions she keeps making that allude to her becoming dark, even having her turn around and glare into the camera in the season 1 finale like sh*t is about to POP OFF, only for fans to learn a couple scenes or episodes later that she actually still wants no bloodshed. They keep doing this! For instance, after the epic scene of Rhaenyra on Dragonstone where she’s looking like a badass and glaring at Aemond as he fled, Rhaenyra met with Corlys and Coryls had to CONVINCE Rhaenyra to fight! Like, f*ck me. The writers actually had Rhaenyra open her mouth to say to Coryls that she had just planned on using her newly gained dragons as a deterrence for Aemond. A F*CKING DETTERENCE. END ME ALREADY. Stop with the yo-yo-ing! We should see her ruthlessness building up episode by episode but instead we see her go back and forth and it makes me dizzy. Stop putting fans on these amazing highs for her character just to do nothing with it.

#3. I don’t care about Rhaena’s story anymore. She makes the same damn pikachu face all season and we’ve ALREADY seen the storyline of a Targaryen child being belittled and feeling bad because they don’t have a dragon and then claiming a dragon, and that child’s name was AEMOND! Except it was done much better there. Why do fans need to see this story again? Just claim a dragon or don’t goddamnit! They’ve dedicated like 5-6 scenes to this! Can you imagine if it took 5 scenes just for Aemond to claim Vhagar? These scenes have overstayed their welcome. I don’t care anymore. I hope Sheepstealer EATS her. 😂 At least that would add a little more excitement and shock to the show. Baela would be like “WUT?!?!” when she hears the news and the news could be delivered by NETTLES who goes on to explain that Sheepstealer killed Rhaena because it already had a rider: herself. 😂 I’m half joking but that would actually make Rhaena’s scenes rewatchable. Because at this point, if I rewatch this season, I’ll definitely be fast forwarding through ALL of Rhaena’s scenes. The show is making me hate Rhaena but not because she’s easy to hate but because she’s taking up time and space that should’ve been given to more important, more interesting characters. Also, are you telling me that the daughter of Daemon Targaryen, the sister of the future queen, the grandchild of Coryls and Rhaenys and someone of her high status can just wonder off and no one notices her missing or goes looking for her?! Like WTF is even happening here? The 6 guards lady Arryn sent need to be fired for real. They had ONE JOB!

All in all, despite my rant here, I still thought the season was good, that it’s the best show on television right now and that it can be redeemed in season 3. Fix it, HBO! And I’m starting to think Sarah Hess needs to GO. She makes some really stupid decisions and doesn’t understand the implications of those decisions or how bad her ideas f*ck up the entire show. She makes changes to the story but doesn’t think too deeply into it. When I saw that she wrote this episode, I said to myself that she probably wrote the only episode I didn’t like in season 1 where Rhaenys crashes through the floor uninjured and without a scratch on her, and also murders loads of people in the process… assassinating Rhaenys’ character and making her suddenly wanting no bloodshed in season 2 seem strange…and then I checked IMDB and I was RIGHT, she wrote that episode! That woman needs to be fired.

[rudebodega]

I got to the end when the music’s playing and everyone’s gazing offscreen and all I could say was “Wait, that’s it?”

Season 3 better be nonstop spectacle because this season was frustrating as hell

[MrBopper]

Lol raena‘s face when she sees that dragon is WILD 😂

[ladsvideos]

No Ice & Fire expert by any means but having read the books and watched the shows, I have to be disappointed that the show is now just grouping all of the magical elements into one big thing. The separation between the weirwoods and the Targaryens makes sense because the dragon riders came from Old Valyria while the weirwoods, children of the forest etc have been on Westeros for eons. Combining all of these together, nearly 200 years before Game of Thrones starts isn't necessary and in a way cheapens the numerous different forms of magic we see in the original show. Daemon doesn't need this vision of the future to motivate him to do the right thing for once, all of his other nightmares and visions have already shown him that he's been on the wrong path and in the book his sudden return to the war and masterstroke is even more satisfying because it is so unexpected.

[Yurgendurgen]

When they turn away instead of head bumping at Harrenhal, I read it as an agreement that they can't be intimate with each other in front of the army that they just recruited. They have to show strength and leave the closeness together. I didn't see it as a rejection at all. If anything, the fact they both turned away, together, it was a move without needing words to communicate. That showed how close they actually can be