House of the Dragon: 2x8 Full Reaction
Added 2025-01-25 15:27:16 +0000 UTC"The Queen Who Ever Was"
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Got a chance to watch this over the 3 day weekend. Great reactions!
James Smith
2025-02-16 18:16:36 +0000 UTCFair warning, this comment might be a bit of a ramble lol. It might be because I'm a book-reader (the source material for HotD is called "Fire and Blood" btw), but I wasn't as annoyed by the cliffhanger as some people are. This whole season has been about setting up the pieces and moving them into place for the real war to begin in earnest. It's unfortunate the the showrunners were forced to move the climax of this season to the start of the next by the higher-ups at HBO, but we have the new series "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" (based on the "Dunk and Egg" novellas, which I love) coming this year to help bridge the gap. Fire and Blood itself is a very interesting book - as you know, it's not a conventional narrative with POV characters like the main ASoIaF series; it's an in-universe historical retelling from centuries in the future, from the time of Robert's rule, based on historical sources which often have questionable reliability. It leaves lots of events and character motivations up to the reader's interpretation based on multiple accounts. For the period HotD is based on, the Dance of Dragons, the three primary sources come mainly from three characters: Septon Eustace, Grand Maester Munkun and Mushroom the court fool. These three all have different politics and perspectives. I love the book and its conceit, and I've been really enjoying the decisions HotD has taken in adapting it. A few quick things to note: - the guy you noticed sneaking away while people were cheering for Rhaenyra was Alfred Broome, who tried to convince Daemon to declare for himself. If you notice, he's also looking around very nervously when everyone else starts bowing. - During the montage at the end, we see Otto has been imprisoned by someone, which is clearly why he hasn't been responding. There's a lot of theories about who captured him. Some people think Larys is responsible but I think it's House Beesbury, who've been mentioned a few times over the last couple of episodes as fighting against the Hightowers in the Reach, which is the area where Otto was travelling on his way to/from Oldtown. - We caught a glimpse of Daeron on Tessarion near the beginning of the montage: it's the small, very vibrant blue dragon flying over the Hightower army. - The "creature" Daemon sees on his way to the tree with Alys is one of the Green Men who live on the Isle of Faces in the Gods' Eye lake and look after all the weirwood trees that grow there: it's the largest concentration of weirwoods south of the Wall since the First Men cut most of them down during their war with the Children of the Forest. The Isle of Faces is where they made peace. The Green Men are said to ride elk and have green skin and antlers - maesters say that they just wear green clothes and wear horned headdresses. They're devoted to the Old Gods and protecting the trees. - I'm almost certain that Hugh's mother is in fact Saera Targaryen, ninth child of King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne, who was infamous for her promiscuity, to the point that she was eventually disowned by her father. As you pointed out last episode, this makes him cousin to Daemon and Viserys. - The Essosi pirate, Admiral Lohar, is played by Abigail Thorn - she's a trans actress and YouTuber I really like and I've been watching for a few years now. Her channel is called Philosophy Tube. Seeing her on-screen was a huge shock lol. I enjoyed her performance a lot, it was a nice shot of energy, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of her in S3. The appearance in Daemon's vision of the Three-Eyed-Raven, a.k.a. Bloodraven, a.k.a. Brynden Rivers has huge implications that I have a lot of thoughts and theories about. For context, Bloodraven lived and was most active during the time period of this year's "A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms" (which will be set about 80 years after HotD, and about 90 years before Game of Thrones) and was a Targaryen bastard rumoured to be a sinister sorcerer and spy master who effectively ruled the kingdom with "spies and spells" before being sentenced to the Night's Watch, becoming Lord Commander and disappearing beyond the wall, where Bran would one day find him, still alive and centrally integrated with the weirwood network. As an example of my thoughts, it's my inference now that Alys Rivers was working on his "orders" by guiding Daemon, though due to nature of the weirwoods, she probably thought her messages were coming from the Old Gods themselves. This is a question I've seen asked by some: why is she helping Daemon despite his actions? And I think this is the answer. Alys is very in-touch with the Old Gods, often referencing things that she heard "on the wind", which is how the Old Gods are known to communicate. Side note: I also find her mannerisms in the finale very interesting; she seems almost sad and resigned when leading Daemon to the tree (she's crying when sitting on his bed for example) - I have my theories on that, but I'll redact them to avoid spoilers. Alys, and Daemon by extension are therefore possibly being directly manipulated by Bloodraven from the future. From my understanding, the so-called Old Gods are actually the hive-mind collective souls of every greenseer who ever has or ever will connect to the network, including Children of the Forest and the First Men, and as we saw in the original series, the weirwood network allows powerful users to see across time and space and operate a closed loop form of time travel, influencing the existing timeline (at least in the show canon, looking at how Bran accidentally traumatised Hodor, and how Ned heard Bran's shout on the wind at the Tower of Joy). Bloodraven is the most powerful greenseer we've ever encountered, with the possible exception of Bran, and in the finale it's possible that we're seeing that it was specifically him sending Daemon these visions rather than them being mere hallucinations caused by Harrenhal itself. Due to the close proximity of the Isle of Faces, that whole area is a hotbed of magic. With Alys' (possibly unwitting?) help, likely including putting weirwood sap into Daemon's food/drink to open his mind, Bloodraven might be incepting ideas in Daemon to set his ancestors on the right path and influence events. Bloodraven is a Targaryen loyalist and the great-grandson of Rhaenyra and Daemon so it makes sense that he has a vested interest in their success, but it might also play a large part in why he specifically shows Daemon the threat of the White Walkers: as the Three-Eyed Raven, he is seemingly in direct opposition to these forces of Ice and Dark and might be trying to plant seeds for the future to aid his own cause. At the end of Game of Thrones, Bloodraven lives on through Bran as King and was ultimately victorious. Another fascinating wrinkle to add to this is Helaena, who is seemingly aware and interacting with this same network on some level. Obviously Targaryens have a history of being magical; dragons aside, some of their lineage are known as Dreamers and are apparently able to see the future to some extent. Helaena has already demonstrated this ability multiple times up until now. It's thanks to a Targaryen Dreamer called Daenys that the Targaryens survived the Doom of Valyria at all - she foresaw the Doom and the Targaryens fled to the furthest outpost of the Valyrian Empire: Dragonstone. The fact that Helaena is seemingly able to "connect" with the weirwood network is something I didn't see coming at all, and I'm interested to see where they'll go with it. The whole universe has the central duality of Fire and Ice; a fiery Targaryen Dreamer and the icy magic of the Children of the Forest working together? Very interesting. Anyway, I've waffled long enough lmao. I've really enjoyed your reactions to this season, and it was the perfect excuse to watch it again and pick up on things I missed the first time around. I hope you'll react to "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" when it comes out this year. We don't have a release date yet, but we think it'll be late in the year, maybe October/November? Thanks 💜
Jordan McLaren
2025-01-25 21:29:11 +0000 UTCI think the reason this season was rough was because it felt like the show was resisting its own premise, with Rhaenyra still speaking about deterring further bloodshed well the finale. Just a lot of dragon things out.
Jorgalorg
2025-01-25 20:34:56 +0000 UTCThe thing with the book is that the book is really more of a historical time told from the point of view of a maester from around the time, who himself is getting a lot of information via rumour from a dwarf named Mushroom who may be lying or telling the purest version of the truth. It’s incredibly ambiguous at times and is for the reader to interpret, even if the events are largely straightforward the reasoning behind them is rarely fully known. For example, in the book Lyonel and Hardin Strong die in a suspicious fire, and Larys is just one among many suspects, including the possibility that it was just a tragic accident.
Jorgalorg
2025-01-25 19:57:11 +0000 UTCThere's various justifications for why the season stops here, from scripts being unable to be rewritten due to the writers strike, to them simply not having enough money to do the imminent battle(+s) we have all been waiting for. I think it's pretty clearly not a storytelling decision, which is disappointing. Why HBO would not just throw some more cash at their biggest show, I do not know. In other news, if you're not watching Severance and want another show to watch, be cool to see you react to that.
Helly R
2025-01-25 15:45:11 +0000 UTC
