House of the Dragon 3x07 Reaction

When LM Reactions are pointing out issues in the travel speed, you know the character writing just isn't good enough.

Can someone explain Aemond's mother issues? Is it just he's a Targaryen so he's prone to incest? LM said in a previous episode -- and this is the natural conclusion to draw -- that it was due to being starved of affection from his mother. But, that is at odds with what we saw in S1 when Aemond was clearly her favorite and the one she showed the most love and care for. Now LM correctly point out that she showed care to him in the past, but in that case how did Alicent fail Aemond? She was a bad mother in general, we know this, but what did we see in particular that made her a bad mother to Aemond? So much of this show relies on the audience filling in the gaps, and then fans jumping into threads to defend it with "do you want everything spelled out to you?". No, I want a show that is interested in telling a story, not getting by on the "technically"s.

Last talk about Alicent since they are basically done with her this season and I don’t think I’ll have much more to say about her next season. Ok first, Alicent trying to murder her sons again… And you know what if we are going to go this route, can we see what that does to her and to her mental state, other than her breathing loudly and putting her hand on her mouth. Can we see Heleana’s relationship with her change knowing she offered her brother to Rhaenyra like can we explore the subject a little bit. Add to that her trying to make Heleana abandon her own kid, there is something interesting to see there in the way Heleana would perceive her mother and Alicent’s reaction to that fact. Kinslaying is litteraly the worst thing you can do in Westeros, it is soooo taboo and here it’s treated with no care. Alicent is a deeply religious person ( a trait she’s had since we were introduced to her as a kid and was carried into her adulthood) so Kinslaying would be an even bigger sin to her. Aemond who burns villages for no reason, has shown more guilt for trying to kill his brother than Alicent. Remember that she was with Criston Cole the night Jaehaerys got killed, does she feel guilty about that? Does she feel like she has to make it up to Heleana or Aegon? Not Aegon I guess since she agreed to have him killed but maybe Heleana? However probably not considering she wanted to force her to abandon the other child. For anyone wanting to explain this with her not loving her kids because they were forced onto her. Maybe she hates her brother too since she gave Gwayne’s location and travel plans to Rhaenyra but he’s not a child she was forced to have. We never see her worried about him. Let’s not even talk about Daeron. Another idea to explore. Otto died and he is the author to everything Alicent is. We never see her explore her feelings about someone who has had a hand in her life being what it is. She’s stuck in a room with Heleana so there is something there about her giving the same life to her own daughter. How interesting would it have been to see her wrestle with the fact that she resents Otto but still loved him in a way because he was her father and she cared about him even tho she hates him. I guess not. Like every death of any important character since viserys, it’s glossed over. Jace, Lucerys, Aegon and Heleana’s kid. We adress for maybe 1 or 2 episodes at most then move on. Same for Criston Cole who has been major character since season 1 (positive or negative, a death of a major character should hold weight). Alicent also lost her mother early in her life and it clearly left a mark on her when we meet her in her younger years. There is something to explore there but why am I trying to write the show for them. This show just doesnt know how to treat death and there are so many characters that will die. How about exploring Alicent’s feelings about almost getting SA’d this season. Because although this one was much more violent, this feeling of being violated is unfortunately something she’s been familiar with for most of her life. Im pretty sure we have a scene in the earlier seasons where she washes herself hard as if trying to get a feeling out of her body. They could do more of that and treat the subject seriously since they’ve put her through so much sexual assault. But no it happens and then we move on. For a show that speaks so much of women’s experiences in this society, I feel like exploring the damages of sa on said women might be a good idea. These are all based on things they’ve put in this season but have done nothing with. On a more practical sense for the story, there are 2 problems wich are kind of one. First, having a character be part of a war story and they just want to escape is just dumb honestly. They made Alicent a main character, how can she stay relevant and have agency in a story she is actively running from. You will have to make her and the characters around her make dumb decisions to have her still be relevant in the story. So now not only does she suffer from that poor decision but so do your other characters and your story as a whole. Like her trying to kill Aemond but not making sure the job is done because now either she doesn’t really want to escape or she’s stupid. It’s option 2… Second, I thought at the end of season 2 that making her decide to sacrifice her children this early is a final season thing not a season 2 out 4 thing because now where can you take her character. It seems I was right because this season Alicent spends it just spinning in circles the whole time. I feel bad for Olivia, she really doesn’t have much to play with in this new season. Her performance in season 1 was top tier. Alicent has made the same expressions this entire season. She called the show a humiliation of Alicent and i cant say i disagree.

whoever this new mod is needs to chill lmao every video has deleted comments now. surely these all can't be spoilers

This helped me to get through Season 3: https://www.reddit.com/r/HouseOfTheDragon/comments/1vi05bc/hotd_3x7_as_a_silent_show/

I think Aemond has been an interesting character who the show has dropped the ball on past season 1. In season 2 he is largely a villainous caricature who betrays his own family. In season 3 he's given the magical Harrenhal therapy that Daemon went through last season, except we get far less focus on what he's going through. Perhaps that's a result of backlash to the amount of time spent on Daemon hallucinating at Harrenahal last season, but surely we could've had something besides a vision of him trying to bang his mom. We've yet to see any sort of reflection or guilt for accidentally killing Luke, and only a single scene where he seems to be haunted by what he did to Aegon. There's never any contemplation in season 2 or 3 on how the murder of Aegon's son was revenge for him killing Luke (though the show in general seems to do its best to make everyone forget about baby Jaehaerys). This is more of a criticism of season 2 than 3 but I would've liked if they made it clear he was struggling with guilt back then and was only putting on a facade. I still dislike the choice they made to have him intentionally burn Aegon. I saw it speculated that back in season 1 they were unsure if they were going to include Daeron at all, and so merged some of his traits with Aemond, turning him into a more sympathetic character. They turned it around in season 2 when they committed to including Daeron, and so made Aemond into a clear villain.

It is incredible what Tom Glynn-Carney does playing Aegon, he is an extremely charismatic actor. It is a difficult role because the character is deeply flawed and audiences might struggle to like. Yet, despite having so little screen time (which i consider a crime on the part of the writers) he delivers what is for me, the shows best character and my personal favorite since S2. The entire speech and the moment Sunfyre wakes up for his rider is the best scene of the season for me, and perhaps of the entire show.

Rhaenyra calling Heleana sister makes me think again that they really should have given the siblings some relationship. They just feel like strangers. All this could've felt more tragic

I could also talk about Alicent and Aemond, but honestly, everything about her causes me physical pain. Its unbelievable to look back and remember that shes the same woman who stepped in front of a dragon to protect Aegon, the same woman who after Aemond lost his eye, was ready to take Lukes eye herself and literally slashed Rhaenyras arm while fighting for justice for her son, the same woman who helped cause all these problems precisely because she feared her children would be killed. i can’t accept it when people say her current state makes sense because "she never loved them" or that this counts as character development, people just need to admit that the writers did a bad job with her