I went through this exact same thing
Spoilers Game Of Thrones’ Spinoff ‘House Of The Dragons’ ordered to series
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I disagree. I think his time in Harran Hall *has* changed him for the better and his bending the knee to Rhaenyra was more about him loving her and realizing he loved his brother than about his future vision. Not that it had *no* effect, but his humbling last week before the bannermen was a sign (to me) of his changing. Or maybe it's simply in how I interpreted how Matt played it.
Same, I even googled it, to check that this was the final.I went through this exact same thing
I completely agreed... last week. I was excited to see the culimation of it this, and if they'd simply deleted that vision or moved it to after his bending the knee to Rhaenyra I think it would have been fantastic.
As it is, it comes across that what ultimately made the final difference was Prophecy.
Not prophecy, the realization of what the responsibility of the throne truly is.
Even after being humbled last week, Daemon still WANTS the throne. He realizes that it may not simply be given to him by right, and that he may need to work for it, but he still thinks that sitting that chair is his destiny.
He has to be shown that the chair isn't a gift, it isn't a birthright. It's the biggest, the heaviest of all responsibilities. Not just to the lords and smallfolk of today, but to all those yet to come. The burden of that crown is the future.
Daemon doesn't want that. He's never wanted that. He wants acclaim, honor, glory. He doesn't want to have to save the whole damn world, or to do the work necessary so that someone in 200 years can do it.
The vision just shows Daemon what he is finally ready to hear. That he has never truly understood what that chair really means or what it does to people. That he can never be the person who can truly handle and perform that job. What the vision finally does is show Daemon that he can be truly happy without the chair, because he will never be happy IN the chair.
All of that, yes. That was the whole point of Viserys' point in the last episode that the crown crushes those who wear it. That's character-changing.
Making it a matter of "you must do it because the End of the World" is exactly what happens when he sees a vision of Brynden in the Weirwood Tree, of the White Walkers, and of Daeny. It's reductionist because "the end of the world" is a much bigger deal than "you'll never be happy with the responsibility." Making it about an existential threat is a perfectly good motivation in general, but in this particular story that's about a family tearing itself to pieces? It would be as though Hamlet suddenly realized he needed to kill Claudius because Prussia would invade and destroy Denmark otherwise.
I mean, I don't agree that they made it about the end of the world. They explicitly show him that what is going to happen will happen well after his own lifetime. There is nothing that he, personally, can do to stop what's coming. Except to make way for the person who perhaps can steer the realm in the direction that points towards salvation, which is not him.
Rather, it's that even seeing Viserys last week and hearing that message wasn't enough to get through Daemon's pride and certainty. Enough to open him to the message, perhaps, but not enough to make him believe it.
He had to feel it for himself. The weight. The hopeless duty. See with his own "eyes" that following his path leads only to his pointless end, outside his control.
As he himself acknowledges when he talks to Rhaenyra when she arrives, they must, ultimately, somehow defeat the undefeatable AND HE HAS NO IDEA HOW. For all his bluster and self-assuredness, the vision finally breaks through and makes him realize he has no clue how do this job that he was so sure he was made for. And that it's too important to dawdle and play at destinies just because of his pride.
Well Cole was sat looking mournful and blatantly holding Alicent's hankie, hence a Lady's Favour and there's likely only one reason he'd have that. Likely Gwayne had his suspicions already, the favour was perhaps the final piece of the jigsaw.
Not alone in that minority. I loved the last episode. Any excuse to get D'Arcy and Cooke in the same room. Daemon's redemption (probably not quite the right word but it will do) works because of the time they spent on it. I don't think the vision was what changed his mind, it was just the final nudge.
I loved Ser Alfred sneaking away while everyone was cheering for the Queen!
I'm guessing Ulf will turn tail at the first sign of having to fight another dragon!
Guessing we're in for a big sea battle next season!
For a moment I thought Helaena had been recast because she looked different, I don't know if that's because Phia Saban was playing her differently, she definitely seemed more grown up, less passive.
Yeah, I meant to bring up that in my review. We definitely don't know where he was imprisoned because Gwayne mentioned that his people were having difficulty in looking for him. So the question remains who imprisoned him and why?
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In a sign of hell freezing over and time healing all wounds, I'm actually contemplating doing the (personally) unthinkable and rewatching Game of Thrones (minus the 'Inside the Episode' codas) once I finish HotD S2 in a couple of weeks.
"Dude, a forklift with a flamethrower! I feel like I'm at home."
Yet again, I love Adam's unabashed nerdiness and love for special effects craft. Tested is truly the perfect continuation of MythBusters.
With special effects technician Julian Butterfield's accent, I also felt like I was watching an episode of Doctor Who Confidential. Excuse me, it's called Unleashed now.
Yet again, I love Adam's unabashed nerdiness and love for special effects craft. Tested is truly the perfect continuation of MythBusters.
With special effects technician Julian Butterfield's accent, I also felt like I was watching an episode of Doctor Who Confidential. Excuse me, it's called Unleashed now.
I didn't know where else to put this, so it's going here.
I started my (never-thought-it-would-happen) rewatch of GoT yesterday (two episodes at a time) and wanted to share some thoughts:
* There's a part of me that wishes that the opening credits for the show (despite how cool and evocative they are) hadn't been attached to Episode 1 just for the sake of symmetry with House of the Dragon
* Having just come off of HotD Season 2 and Rhaenys briefly acknowledging her acceptance of Alyn and Addam as Corlys' bastards, I really found myself looking sideways at Catelyn Stark for how she treated Jon, especially knowing that he's not actually Ned's kid at all
* Despite knowing where her story ultimately leads, I really couldn't stop myself from despising Sansa at the beginning
* Even though I know that he's not actually a Baratheon and therefore isn't related to either of them, I found it hard not to draw parallels between Joffrey and Aegon II and Aemond Targaryen
* There really was no need for the series to emphasize distances and treat characters' journeys as if they were happening in 'real time'; this is especially apparent with Episode 2, "The Kingsroad", where the writing doesn't really accomplish much other than having Bran wake up and starting to seed Arya's list of grudges (knowing where Dany and Jon's stories end up has unfortunately made me reticent to care as deeply about their respective plotlines as I had before)
* I did smile at the scene of Dany being given her 3 Dragon Eggs, though, since I just came off of HotD where we saw both their 'origin point' and a glimpse of Dany herself (in silhouette) in Season 2
* Joffrey's not the only character that I was comparing to Aegon II and Aemond, though, as I really couldn't stand their descendant Viserys III this time around and can't wait for what I know is coming for him in Episode 6 (despite my reticence to actually care as much about Dany's story this time)
* Because I now know that the Catspaw dagger has part of the Song of Ice & Fire inscribed on its blade, I have a feeling it's going to be hard to go through the rest of the series and not think about how much simpler some plotlines would've been if somebody had just known to thrust it into a fire
* Given my current hesitation when it comes to investing as heavily in Dany and Jon this time around, I have a suspicion that this rewatch could definitively cement the Lannister siblings as my favorite characters
* Coming back to GoT immediately after finishing House of the Dragon has me wondering if there might not be some lost, distant bloodline link (in the show's universe) between the Stark and Targaryen houses given the importance of the Song of Ice and Fire in HotD and Bran and Arya's eventual connections to its fulfillment
I started my (never-thought-it-would-happen) rewatch of GoT yesterday (two episodes at a time) and wanted to share some thoughts:
* There's a part of me that wishes that the opening credits for the show (despite how cool and evocative they are) hadn't been attached to Episode 1 just for the sake of symmetry with House of the Dragon
* Having just come off of HotD Season 2 and Rhaenys briefly acknowledging her acceptance of Alyn and Addam as Corlys' bastards, I really found myself looking sideways at Catelyn Stark for how she treated Jon, especially knowing that he's not actually Ned's kid at all
* Despite knowing where her story ultimately leads, I really couldn't stop myself from despising Sansa at the beginning
* Even though I know that he's not actually a Baratheon and therefore isn't related to either of them, I found it hard not to draw parallels between Joffrey and Aegon II and Aemond Targaryen
* There really was no need for the series to emphasize distances and treat characters' journeys as if they were happening in 'real time'; this is especially apparent with Episode 2, "The Kingsroad", where the writing doesn't really accomplish much other than having Bran wake up and starting to seed Arya's list of grudges (knowing where Dany and Jon's stories end up has unfortunately made me reticent to care as deeply about their respective plotlines as I had before)
* I did smile at the scene of Dany being given her 3 Dragon Eggs, though, since I just came off of HotD where we saw both their 'origin point' and a glimpse of Dany herself (in silhouette) in Season 2
* Joffrey's not the only character that I was comparing to Aegon II and Aemond, though, as I really couldn't stand their descendant Viserys III this time around and can't wait for what I know is coming for him in Episode 6 (despite my reticence to actually care as much about Dany's story this time)
* Because I now know that the Catspaw dagger has part of the Song of Ice & Fire inscribed on its blade, I have a feeling it's going to be hard to go through the rest of the series and not think about how much simpler some plotlines would've been if somebody had just known to thrust it into a fire
* Given my current hesitation when it comes to investing as heavily in Dany and Jon this time around, I have a suspicion that this rewatch could definitively cement the Lannister siblings as my favorite characters
* Coming back to GoT immediately after finishing House of the Dragon has me wondering if there might not be some lost, distant bloodline link (in the show's universe) between the Stark and Targaryen houses given the importance of the Song of Ice and Fire in HotD and Bran and Arya's eventual connections to its fulfillment
GRRM is not happy about a few changes that the show has made from the books. Spoilers for the book and probably S3, if you haven’t read the book and want to remain unspoiled:
Has the article been deleted already?