Good episode, and in spite of the many missteps they've made with this series, casting Matt Smith as Daemon is far and away the best thing they have done.

I really liked this episode.

Great episode.

Have to say I didn't see them ever actually taking the city, much less Rhaenyra actually sitting the throne, however temporary it turns out to be.

We always heard in GoT how Westeros had never had a Queen before Cersei, so I took that to mean no woman had ever sat the Iron Throne. Makes me wonder if this is a deviation from the books and the cause of the rift between Condal and GRRM.

The cards are now stacked pretty heavily for Team Black with Aemond injured, but I'm sure the witch is gonna give him some weird black magic superpowers that'll swing things back towards Team Green by the time the season is over.

And did I miss something, or did Larys' capture of Otto happen entirely offscreen? I know we saw him in a cage at the end of S2 but we had zero context at the time.

This season is already off to great start though.

Feels like these 2 episodes should have been the last 2 of season 2

F-ck Otto Hightower

Not a perfect beheading effort from Rhaenyra, but better than Theon Reek.

Seeing the dragons flying low over King's Landing gave me some flashbacks flashforwards. No Dany, no

Glad there was quick justice on Lord Ironrod, keep it in your pants buddy

Whatever my issues with the show, it feels like Emma D'Arcy just won the Golden Globe / Emmy tonight for Best Lead Actress. Her grief at the beginning of the episode and her turn to vengeance and further turn to claiming her right were some truly epic decisions in her facial expressions and tone of voice.


Trusting anything the GoT TV show did past its first 4 seasons is haphazard compared to the actual history of the story. In truth, Aegon's two sister queens also both sat the Iron Throne at times during his absence.

I feel like Cole has been of zero consequence considering all of his blubbering/whining in season 1, and plotting and banging Alicent in Season 2.

I really enjoyed this episode. I was worried the City Watch would not support the Blacks, but Daemon's relationship with the commander saved the day.

Otto got what he deserved for all his plotting and scheming.

I need Rhaenyra to buck up a little bit. "Heavy lies the crown...."

Personally, really liked Otto. The self serving plotting and scheming like Little Finger is what made GOT so good. Hate to see one of those self interested strategists get his head cut off.

StinkyPinky said:

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Making up for lost time. Season is delivering in spades.

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deer corn said:

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I feel like Cole has been of zero consequence considering all of his blubbering/whining in season 1, and plotting and banging Alicent in Season 2.

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He had that little monologue in episode 1, hes a broken man after that first battle where the dragons showed up and burned everyone. Very disillusioned

Earth Rider said:

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Personally, really liked Otto. The self serving plotting and scheming like Little Finger is what made GOT so good. Hate to see one of those self interested strategists get his head cut off.

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Him berating Cole and Aegon after killing the rat catchers was probably the best acted scene in the show.

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I need Rhaenyra to buck up a little bit.

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Yeah, I would have loved for her to hit Otto the first time and be like "oops my bad" in attitude. Make him hurt a little on purpose.

zap said:

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I really enjoyed this episode. I was worried the City Watch would not support the Blacks, but Daemon's relationship with the commander saved the day.

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i've been introducing one of my kids to GoT with much scene skipping to avoid the rampant sex scenes of the first 3 seasons; the scene has great parallels and contrasts to the scene where the City Watch turns on Ned Stark when he tries to unseat Joffrey right after Robert's death.

The Watch last night acted on loyalty and honor; 100 years later, it's only regard is for who is paying the most.

I'd like to give the Ric Olie "Captain Obvious" Award to the guy at Harrenhahl who watched Vhgar torch the whole camp outside the walls, circle around twice, then land 15 feet from him before he yelled "DRAGON!" and took off running.

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I'd like to give the Ric Olie "Captain Obvious" Award to the guy at Harrenhahl who watched Vhgar torch the whole camp outside the walls, circle around twice, then land 15 feet from him before he yelled "DRAGON!" and took off running.

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How about old fat lord casually having dinner with his sons while all 3, apparently, are oblivious to the roar of a dragon and sounds of battle in the halls?

redline248 said:

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Quote:

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I'd like to give the Ric Olie "Captain Obvious" Award to the guy at Harrenhahl who watched Vhgar torch the whole camp outside the walls, circle around twice, then land 15 feet from him before he yelled "DRAGON!" and took off running.

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How about old fat lord casually having dinner with his sons while all 3, apparently, are oblivious to the roar of a dragon and sounds of battle in the halls?

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That guy gave up a long time ago, but that was hilarious. Even more so when he thought, "You know what this crazy, one-eyed psycho would like? Me putting both my hands on him."

All Temu Daemon had to do was be nice to the old fat lord.

Instead it looks like he is being set up to be a creature of ugly ass Alys Rivers.

The first 2 episodes of this season felt like they should have been compressed into one episode and have been one long season 2 finale.

Despite how good Queen's Landing was, I still have a hard time seeing why this Targaryen arc needs to be four seasons.

Bonus detail: looks like Queen Helaena Tismgaryen is smuggling some decent sized jugs under those bulky noblewoman dresses.

I could make the argument that this series needed to be longer than 4 seasons.

They're trimming out a lot, several time skips and changing the ages of a lot of characters (unnecessarily) to condense it

Mega Lops said:

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I still have a hard time seeing why this Targaryen arc needs to be four seasons.

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ReturnOfTheAg said:

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I could make the argument that this series needed to be longer than 4 seasons.

They're trimming out a lot, several time skips and changing the ages of a lot of characters (unnecessarily) to condense it

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I'm with you, there's still a lot of story to cover.

The last 2 episodes should have been episodes 9 and 10 of season 2, and then i would have though this show would be 5 10 episode seasons.

The greatest thing HBO could do was announce that the 4th season of House of the Dragon jumps ahead in time to show 20-year-old Aerys II take the throne, remove all of his father's old councilors, and appoint 20-year-old Tywin Lannister as Hand of the King.

Gives us a proper telling of Robert's Rebellion, Robert v Rhaegar on the Trident, a real battle between Ned's guys and the Kingsguard at the Tower of Joy, the whole thing.

I wonder how long it will take Rhaenyra and Daemon to figure out that one of his daughters is responsible for Jace's death. Must suck to go and "bond" with a wild dragon and then not be able to control it when you're trying to help. I doubt Rhaenyra will care, and I doubt Daemon cares enough about her to save her from vengeance.

Rhaenyra refused to hurt Ser Lorent. I doubt she would hurt Rhaena.

Good point, though her actions were more directly tied to the death

Rhaena will stay in the Vale for their protection or camp out w her new slack jawed buddy. No way she will go to Dragonstone or KL to atone. Lord she is so whimpery and whiney. Sheepstealer should just eat her.

She left Ser Lorent's fate to others. She still wanted him dead, methinks.

Yes she said "let him choose how he wants to die" or something like that at the end

Well, looks like this is gonna be a frustrating watch of watching Rhaenyra fumble the ball from here on out.

Like a slow motion car crash.

Not a fan of that episode, we'll see

The Mysaria actress is so bad.

Otherwise that was a really good episode. The intro with Daemon was masterful and made me look forward to the reveal when Daeron wasn't Daeron.

The tapestry intro was longer and confusing but I'm fascinated.

While part of my was disappointed tonight, another part remembered the failing of the original serious when Dany broke bad without warning or explanation. Rhaenyra's descent will be better documented.

Ol Jock 99 said:

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While part of my was disappointed tonight, another part remembered the failing of the original serious when Dany broke bad without warning or explanation. Rhaenyra's decent will be better documented.

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yes the last two episodes Emma D'arcy has really nailed it.