House of The Dragon 3x06 Reaction
Comments (20)
wish i could have a verbal conversation with someone that doesn't understand Alicent's character, as a non book reader, i really dont get it. It feels like people have completely washed season 2 out of their minds cause even if you dislike her, shes doing what she can/has to. shes been trapped in a fucked up situation, partly due to her continued participation, but in all honesty is heavily due to her father's ambitions, but is trying so hard to hold on to the only thing she has left (Heleana). yeah shes desperate but what else can she do?
Daeron was almost assassinated this episode and Alicent even had a hand in THAT, Ormund was distracted by the smell (goofy ass plan) and it’s due to her providing that info. Insane dedication to killing all your children lol. Honestly, I NEED you guys to read a summary of Alicent’s arc in the book compared to the show when the show wraps up. In fact, dedicate a few minutes to in the discussion of 4x8.
Add to that, Daeron acts like this did not happen and keeps talking like this war doesnt have anything to do with him. Apparently the only way a character can be good is if they are anti war even if it’s at the cost of their survival. Or their family’s survival in the case of Alicent
You're much smarter than the characters simply because you wouldn't slap dragon riders. Pretty funny how that came back within this episode even.
It's crazy the standard shows like this are held to in comparison to other properties. I'm not sure why exactly. I do think there is something about modern superhero/fantasy/science fiction fans that makes them love complaining about a show or movie much more than just enjoying it or turning it off. And then it trickles out to people that aren't huge fans of the material, so they can't have the same complaints as offended book readers but feel the subconscious need to also find fault in places that don't deserve it. And these are the same people that watch tons of anime, which, for the most part, is the cringiest, over-the-top, eye roll inducing slop known to mankind. But it's a different standard. Fascinating.
Most of LM's complaints about Hotd are about character stuff, and anybody who's watched LM for any length of time knows that they're geniuses at examining character writing. Maybe book reader complaints in the comments have made them feel more comfortable being outwardly critical of the show, but they definitely would've drawn the same conclusions without them.
As someone who read the book and loves this universe, (it's genuinely one of my favorite universes and collection of stories), seeing the travesty this show has turned out to be has been heartbreaking. It's very clear the show runner of this show does not understand what this story, with it's many themes and messages, was supposed to be and who these characters are supposed to be, and we fans have had to suffer for it. Regarding Alicent as a character, honestly I knew she was cooked as a character from the very beginning when the creator decided to age her down at the beginning of the story and age Rhaenrya up just so they can spin this child bride/childhood friendship BS. To give you ladies some insight, Alicent in the book was 20 when she married Viserys (who also was only around 10 years older than her, not some old man) and Rhaenrya was around 7 or 8 years old when they married, she was a little girl who did not quite remember her mother because she died when she was so young and for all Rhaenrya knew, Alicent was the only mother Rhaenrya ever had. Alicent also loved Rhaenrya as a daughter when she was young, but then Alicent had children of her own and the second Aegon was born, Alicent started to see Rhaenrya as a threat to her children, and their Mother/Daughter relationship shattered and you cannot convince me that wouldn't have been a better story than what I'm seeing right now. By aging Alicent down and Rhaenrya up, they fundamentally altered the core of these characters (mainly Alicent) thus fundamentally altering this story, and the domino effect of that has shown quite fiercely throughout all 3 of these seasons and will also show in the 4th season as well. A huge example of this being Aegon and Rhaenrya..... the writers were so focused on keeping up with this silly "Childhood Friendship" in S1, that they completely forgot to show Aegon and Rhaenrya as SIBLINGS. One of the biggest reasons Aegon in the book was so hesitant to take the throne in the first place was because he didn't want to take it from his sister, one of his most famous quotes from the book was "What kind of brother, steals his sister's birthright?" Think about the emotional weight this show could have had if they actually highlighted the fact that this was about a brother and sister fighting to kill one another, but as it stands Aegon and Rhaenrya do not feel like siblings and this war carries NO emotional weight, it's devoid of it, because you have stripped every character and their interpersonal relationships with each other bare, all to prop one relationship and character that you manufactured for this show thinking it would be better than the book and in all honesty, it just simply isn't. And now you're not even writing that part of the story right either, lol. Because in order to "Redeem" Alicent so she can come out smelling like roses after all of this, you commit character assassination on your own originally written character. You break the rules and the core of the character you set up in the seasons prior, that now even her fans like you ladies can't help but admit her character is going nowhere and that her writing has been atrocious.
The reason you were able to predict that first scene with Alicent and Rhaenyra so easily is because they’ve had a slight variation of that same conversation before. The show keeps doing that. The small council scene discussing what to do with Tumbleton with Daemon suggesting full attack and someone cautioning against it and Rhaenyra being torn is a slight variation of scenes from before. Same with Corlys wanting to leave Rhaenyra but a member of his family bringing him back (3 times now). The show keeps doing this. And now for Alicent is going to try and kill a member of her family once more because the writers cant write anything for her to do. Rhaenyra’s greatest warrior They just make the characters do the same things over and over again until the next big event because they don’t know what to do
There is a consistent mid-season lull and a feeling that they can tread water with these scenes and these characters, knowing that as long as they throw in a big battle at the end it will earn enough faith from the viewers for them to watch the next season. I don't think Game of Thrones was like that at all, so it's such a strange formula...
Showrunners: "Ok so you know how the original game of thrones show deviated from the source material and all the changes built up over time to completely crash the narrative and deliver one of the most hated final seasons ever?" "Yeah?" "Well... what if WE did that?" .... like seriously how did they not learn
In fairness, their favorite character was Alicent in S1-2, and that is a complete deviation from the source material.
Criston Cole has been fascinating, though I've disliked some of the writing choices around him. He's more or less been the most hated character in the show unfortunately, and a lot of the nuance with him has been lost in discussions. Cole dying unceremoniously comes from the books, though they cut a line where he's told "I'll have no songs about how brave you died, Kingmaker. There's tens o' thousands dead on your account." The woman that killed him was Alysanne Blackwood, a book character of marginally more prominence who they havent even named. The only way Alicent's character is coherent is if she's an unsympathetic idiot and the most selfish person alive. She continues to shirk all responsibilities for her part in the war and tries to sell out her children at every chance. I assume she's fully lying when she tells Helaena that it was Otto's idea to marry her to Aegon. In season 1 Rhaenyra suggests that Jace be betrothed to Helaena, which Alicent strongly rejects and in the following episode Aegon is suddenly betrothed to Helanea. Otto had only just returned to be Hand so it was presumably her idea to betroth Aegon and Helaena to counter the Jace offer. In the books Alicent generally takes a back seat once the war actually starts because she only can do so much in a civil war led by dragon riders. The show continuing to try to keep her as a major player at the cost of her character. Baela and Rhaena have been underutilized in the show so far. Baela is meant to be the more headstrong of Daemon's daughters who took after him in personality so on the surface her wanting to hook up with Alyn when she's feeling stressed and wants an outlet works, but there should have been more of her in the past. Gwayne is effectively a show OC at this point in terms of his storyline and characterization and he is one of the highlights of the show.
It's so sad to somehow see HotD repeat the EXACT same mistakes as the original GoT by deviating so hard from the source.
I'm liking this season much more than you but I agree they have no clue what to do with Alicent. Since in the show they've made her much less adversarial to Rhae, there's kind of nowhere for her to go. Half the characters in the show don't have much to do in the book for long periods (see also Daemon last season), so they're trying to hit these predetermined big events while doing a mixed job inventing stuff for the characters to do on the way there. I think they have done a good job with Gwayne/Daeron/Ormund and Larys/Aegon so far tho, and Ep3 was a very good Rhae ep.
The thing is if they kept up the same pace as season 1, the lack of material wouldn't matter. But since they can't shoot that many battles scenes in a season, everything is prolonged by cheaper dialogue scenes, which have to be filled with plots that don't exist or really make sense with the original narrative.
Baela and Alyn scene... just random
Baela and Alyn did have a scene in Episode 2. It's so true what you say about Baela being a mouthpiece for the writers. I would go further and say that's also Alicent whenever she's in a scene with Rhaenyra, and Helaena whenever she's in a scene with Alicent. You can tell usually take the first one's words as being gospel and the morally right position.
I'm with you on finding Gwayne and Daeron the most interesting parts of the season. But when I actually think about it, is it well-written, or is it just that it's new and thus a blank slate? These two characters are less explored than the ones that have been there since S1, therefore the writers haven't had a chance to burn my emotional investment yet and I still find them refreshing. That's how I see it at least. Oh, Lola ended up saying a similar thing in the discussion. Glad it's not just me.
I was gonna say it's performance but Emma and Olivia are wonderful, so I think it's mostly the material. The dynamic of Daeron's abusive relationship with Ormund where Gwayne is the kind older brother figure is a good setup with some clear drama.
Best boy Gwayne in the thumbnail!