The biggest issue I have with the series, is that it has virtually no sympathetic characters left. I'm not invested into any of them and don't really care if they live or die. Very different from GoT in that regard.
I’ve been loving this season so far! A couple of qualms here & there but overall a success in my opinion. Here’s hoping 🤞🏻 the season ends strong. 💪🏻. Great 👍🏻 review & recap as always! Keep it up. 🤘🏻.
No mention of Aemond asking Aegon “what do you remember?” Clarifies that Aemond did attack Aegon with intent to kill during the dragon battle scene ep4.
Excellent Episode! I loved every minute of it! The acting on this show is outstanding! Aemon "kinslayer" is now my favorite character! Great review but I'm not going past your spoiler theory because I like to see these shows without knowing anything and I don't know a thing about the book!
Very slow burning and slightly suffers from the GoT thing of having too many characters to follow and invest in. I think I'm enjoying it overall, though.
How insightful that comment is... It's a dramatic adaptation of those chapters of the historical chronicle, "Fire And Blood" and its characters, their motivations and their overall arcs beginning to end. As such, it is a sprawling story of Targaryen family line torn apart by a civil war for ascendancy and that war was of their making. It's the opening chapters of the decline and eventual fall of the Targaryen dynasty. If all you were expecting was battles of dragons and other kinds week to week, you've barked up the wrong tree. Nothing is boring about it, at all. There are many pieces that need to be set on the game board before all hell breaks loose and the show is exactly doing that. The big battles, the big action set pieces will come in the second part of Act 2 (season three). On that promise, you can trust. BUT one thing we're not getting this season, is The Battle Of The Gullet. So, if that's what you're waiting for to break your boredom, you're SOL.
@@denniskristos3800 All of that and yet season 2 is still a snooze fest 💤 show runners waiting for the last 2 eps for the plot to actually progress lol what a joke 😆 Enjoy 🥂
Is it weird that when they kissed, I immediately thought of you? LOL When you said after the last brothel scene, basically, "give us a little something." I was like, "we got it!" And of course I was wondering if it was from the book. I started the episode saying "I hate the way they're writing Rhaenyra this season." I ended the episode saying "I love the way they're writing Rhaenyra this season!" LOL
Great review, maybe not in my top 2 episodes of the season but a solid enjoyable episode. Also to clarify i believe you were swapping Alyn and Addam later in this review. Addam is the rider of Seasmoke , Alyn is the one shaving his head , later known as Oakenfist , who becomes sea-captain , later on admiral , Master of ships , Lord of the Tides etc. And yes it does seem they are merging Rhaena and Nettles on HotD. I am a bit disappointed in the decision myself , especially given Nettles' origins and what she is able to achieve coming from that and takes away certain elements from the later Rhaenyra / Daemon dynamic. Clearly setting up Rhaena bonding with Sheepstealer by the look of it and now to me explains GRRM's latest blog post as more preemptive criticisms from what was to come on HotD. In this case with dragons not being nomadic or wandering far away (believe he even mentioned the Vale specifically) without the direction of a rider etc ; and the importance of sticking to canon.
@@persephone342 i do have hope for TWoW hopefully sooner rather than later but ADoS id say extremely unlikely given his age and pace of writing / delays. I think many of us share the frustrations on how long TWoW has taken. Though his canonical critiques with HotD i do mostly agree with.
If there's a big hero moment by a white mal protagonist, be assured that they will change that and a woman will take its place. They did it before with Arya in GoT and will do it again. Forget about the book.
Nice review James. I'm excited to see which event they'll choose to wrap up the season with. I'll refrain from saying my other opinions or criticisms as it got me attacked in your comment section last time.
I see 3 events they could end it on. Without spoiling, The first event, which I believe is the next one up, would be super underwhelming and you didn’t really bring up. I could see them pulling a battle aftermath scene though and not showing it I guess, but they’ve been setting it up. Without spoiling let’s say it has something to do with the North. The next 2 events, one you mentioned, would be great ways to finish the season. I think it is the one that you mentioned with the blockade. Without spoiling, The other has to do with Kings Landing. I don’t see the Daemon event you mentioned happening this season. Imagine they do all 3 in the next 2 episodes. That should shut the people up talking about the show being to slow lol.
I watched this with someone who never saw the show before. If it was a particularly fast paced ep or a season finale they would have been on their own but in this case I didn't mind pausing to explain things a few times. The ep did a lot of that work for me reiterating many things regular viewers already knew, which might be good for newcomers, but sort of left me wanting a bit. Some unnecessary time spent showing the guy clamming discover the lone Black food boat then slowly revealing a dozen+ more food boats like it was some jaw drop moment. Felt like a waste of precious show time. Alicent & Helaena escape a raging mob & the only violence shown is one guy losing his arm? Pretty tame by franchise standards. Still, love the scenery, characters, costumes, lore, the dragons looked great. Guess I'm just bummed only 2 more eps left & then what, S3 in 2026? I'm so fucking reading Fire & Blood after the finale...
This is a nitpick but at this point how do reviewers not know that Alicent's kids are Rhaenyra's siblings & her sons are their nephews?! 🤦♂️ Every single channel i check out, people make the mistake of calling them cousins
obvious, boring slow slow slow, boring obvious and slow.. it could have been 10mins long.. they keep saying the same thing over and over again..... boring... most boring episode ever.. and so obvious..also no-one has any agency.. stuff just happens.. blonde black smith to get a dragon... low people get dragon by accident.. lesbos get kissing cos its obvious... baddies... goodies.. queens get bad luck... lots of luck...stuff the only person that is interesting and doinging something is that witch,,,, and everybody is unlikeable.. accept prince Hightower (who is a whimp but can fight) and Phil Daniels who does not say anything. GET ON WITH IT
@2ndprize-c4f thanks for the reply, your writing is better than all of season 2 & yes.. IT was so obvious that Stefan would fail.... almost funny (red shirt) LOL
Don’t ever stop man love all your recaps!
Yeah, they are merging the Nettles storyline. I'm fine with it.
The biggest issue I have with the series, is that it has virtually no sympathetic characters left. I'm not invested into any of them and don't really care if they live or die. Very different from GoT in that regard.
I’ve been loving this season so far!
A couple of qualms here & there but overall a success in my opinion.
Here’s hoping 🤞🏻 the season ends strong. 💪🏻.
Great 👍🏻 review & recap as always!
Keep it up. 🤘🏻.
No mention of Aemond asking Aegon “what do you remember?” Clarifies that Aemond did attack Aegon with intent to kill during the dragon battle scene ep4.
Rhaenyra: Ser Celtigar, what did the five fingers say to the face?
👋🏻
UA-cam is getting absolutely stupid with its censorship. All I said was the phrase that comes after yours (c**d bl**ded) and it deleted the comment.
Sonoya Mizuno was good in Devs, but I can't tell if she's been horribly miscasted in this or if the character is supposed to be played like that?
When the people were rebelling, I was like, “Yeah! Get those mothafkas! Eat the rich! Eat the rich! Eat the rich! Eat them!!!”
Excellent Episode! I loved every minute of it! The acting on this show is outstanding! Aemon "kinslayer" is now my favorite character! Great review but I'm not going past your spoiler theory because I like to see these shows without knowing anything and I don't know a thing about the book!
Very slow burning and slightly suffers from the GoT thing of having too many characters to follow and invest in. I think I'm enjoying it overall, though.
Alyn = bald
Addam = locs
I really need to show to pick up because I am losing interest fast.
This season is boring
your boring
How insightful that comment is... It's a dramatic adaptation of those chapters of the historical chronicle, "Fire And Blood" and its characters, their motivations and their overall arcs beginning to end. As such, it is a sprawling story of Targaryen family line torn apart by a civil war for ascendancy and that war was of their making. It's the opening chapters of the decline and eventual fall of the Targaryen dynasty. If all you were expecting was battles of dragons and other kinds week to week, you've barked up the wrong tree. Nothing is boring about it, at all. There are many pieces that need to be set on the game board before all hell breaks loose and the show is exactly doing that. The big battles, the big action set pieces will come in the second part of Act 2 (season three). On that promise, you can trust. BUT one thing we're not getting this season, is The Battle Of The Gullet. So, if that's what you're waiting for to break your boredom, you're SOL.
@@denniskristos3800 All of that and yet season 2 is still a snooze fest 💤 show runners waiting for the last 2 eps for the plot to actually progress lol what a joke 😆 Enjoy 🥂
@@whoknew2273 lol what a rebuttal *sarcastic tone*
@@JamesCooper-z2b their feelings must of been hurt
Is it weird that when they kissed, I immediately thought of you? LOL When you said after the last brothel scene, basically, "give us a little something." I was like, "we got it!" And of course I was wondering if it was from the book. I started the episode saying "I hate the way they're writing Rhaenyra this season." I ended the episode saying "I love the way they're writing Rhaenyra this season!" LOL
Great review, maybe not in my top 2 episodes of the season but a solid enjoyable episode. Also to clarify i believe you were swapping Alyn and Addam later in this review. Addam is the rider of Seasmoke , Alyn is the one shaving his head , later known as Oakenfist , who becomes sea-captain , later on admiral , Master of ships , Lord of the Tides etc.
And yes it does seem they are merging Rhaena and Nettles on HotD. I am a bit disappointed in the decision myself , especially given Nettles' origins and what she is able to achieve coming from that and takes away certain elements from the later Rhaenyra / Daemon dynamic. Clearly setting up Rhaena bonding with Sheepstealer by the look of it and now to me explains GRRM's latest blog post as more preemptive criticisms from what was to come on HotD. In this case with dragons not being nomadic or wandering far away (believe he even mentioned the Vale specifically) without the direction of a rider etc ; and the importance of sticking to canon.
At this point, fuck GRRM! He’s never going to finish Winds, so I can at least get a story told by HBO. Sorry, I’m just frustrated with him. 😂
@@persephone342 i do have hope for TWoW hopefully sooner rather than later but ADoS id say extremely unlikely given his age and pace of writing / delays. I think many of us share the frustrations on how long TWoW has taken. Though his canonical critiques with HotD i do mostly agree with.
And yes to your theory!
I was thinking similar 😊
If there's a big hero moment by a white mal protagonist, be assured that they will change that and a woman will take its place. They did it before with Arya in GoT and will do it again. Forget about the book.
Nice review James. I'm excited to see which event they'll choose to wrap up the season with. I'll refrain from saying my other opinions or criticisms as it got me attacked in your comment section last time.
I see 3 events they could end it on. Without spoiling, The first event, which I believe is the next one up, would be super underwhelming and you didn’t really bring up. I could see them pulling a battle aftermath scene though and not showing it I guess, but they’ve been setting it up. Without spoiling let’s say it has something to do with the North.
The next 2 events, one you mentioned, would be great ways to finish the season. I think it is the one that you mentioned with the blockade. Without spoiling, The other has to do with Kings Landing.
I don’t see the Daemon event you mentioned happening this season.
Imagine they do all 3 in the next 2 episodes. That should shut the people up talking about the show being to slow lol.
I’ve enjoyed the spooky Asylum! Loving the slow burn!
I watched this with someone who never saw the show before. If it was a particularly fast paced ep or a season finale they would have been on their own but in this case I didn't mind pausing to explain things a few times. The ep did a lot of that work for me reiterating many things regular viewers already knew, which might be good for newcomers, but sort of left me wanting a bit.
Some unnecessary time spent showing the guy clamming discover the lone Black food boat then slowly revealing a dozen+ more food boats like it was some jaw drop moment. Felt like a waste of precious show time.
Alicent & Helaena escape a raging mob & the only violence shown is one guy losing his arm? Pretty tame by franchise standards.
Still, love the scenery, characters, costumes, lore, the dragons looked great. Guess I'm just bummed only 2 more eps left & then what, S3 in 2026? I'm so fucking reading Fire & Blood after the finale...
This was a fantastic episode everything is coming together 🎉
Aemond so damn good on this show
Aemond is turning into Joffrey with a dragon. 😅
Yes.
HOTD S2 is boring 😢!
This is a nitpick but at this point how do reviewers not know that Alicent's kids are Rhaenyra's siblings & her sons are their nephews?! 🤦♂️
Every single channel i check out, people make the mistake of calling them cousins
The same way they confuse Alyn and addam of hull.
obvious, boring slow slow slow, boring obvious and slow.. it could have been 10mins long.. they keep saying the same thing over and over again..... boring... most boring episode ever.. and so obvious..also no-one has any agency.. stuff just happens.. blonde black smith to get a dragon... low people get dragon by accident.. lesbos get kissing cos its obvious... baddies... goodies.. queens get bad luck... lots of luck...stuff
the only person that is interesting and doinging something is that witch,,,, and everybody is unlikeable.. accept prince Hightower (who is a whimp but can fight) and Phil Daniels who does not say anything.
GET ON WITH IT
@2ndprize-c4f thanks for the reply, your writing is better than all of season 2 & yes.. IT was so obvious that Stefan would fail.... almost funny (red shirt) LOL
Hugh hammer gets vermitol
Getting burnded up by a dragon, that's the way my grandpappy died.
💚🇬🇧🌱
Gayle Rankin, scene stealer…