This is the only thread...and the lack of responses should be telling.
As for me, I just happened to watch the episode and....well...eh.
Granted it's been awhile since season two but I couldn't remember half the characters, where their loyalties lay, what their histories are, or even their names. Mind you, I know some of them are new like Tommy Flanagan and Joplin Sibtain (Brasso on
Andor!) but it's a bad case of too many characters. Yes,
Game of Thrones had a ton of characters, too, but I feel like that show had a rich cast of fascinating characters while this show is full of assholes I still don't care about.
I keep returning mostly for Matt Smith and Sonoya Mizuno but they barely had anything to do in this episode. Honestly, the only character I found engaging in this particular episode was Rhaena...and, oof, that was a heartbreaking sequence at the end.
Otherwise, it was an endless slog of fighting (the sea sequences at least stood out well enough) and I just didn't care who lived or died.
Thought it was a great start to the season. Yeah, we all know they cut off two episodes from the end of season 2 and this is how that season should have ended. But it still worked very well as a season opener and set up a ton of stuff.
Wait, really? I never heard that.
I liked Alys just declaring "I'm a witch" and the common dragonrides being like "yeah, fuck this" and leaving. Some nice humour there and with Larys earlier, it's appreciated.
The bits with Alys and Larys were fun, I agree, but they were fleeting.
I think they hinted at Aemond having weird feelings for his mother last season, but that was still a pretty gross surprise when he kissed her.
I...actually joked to myself that they looked like they were going to kiss but I didn't actually expect it to happen.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised with this particular world. Just a pity Aemond didn't also kill his father.