 I just enjoyed it so much. But I saw a lot of chatter. We're not murdering your record. That's the wrong thing. We're doing only the right thing. It was just dumb to me, personally. ["House of the Dragon Episode 9"] House of the Dragon Episode 9 was so good. Oh, man. I was actually late to watching it. I wasn't able to watch it on Sunday when it aired, and then I had to stay off the internet until I could watch it. And oh, man. Oh, man. So good. Okay, I have clear thoughts. I have notes. I have sections. I have things to say. But I mean, watching it, because I am reviewing this show and these episodes, then as I'm watching each episode, half of me is just enjoying it, you know, watching it as a viewer, as a fan, as just for entertainment. And then half of me is also going, okay, I can talk about that. I might talk about that. I might pull a shot of that. Like, I'm kind of doing both at the same time. And it was honestly kind of hard to think about that while watching this one, not because there's nothing to talk about, because I have quite a few notes. I have a lot of notes, as usual. As one of the start writing them down, I was like, actually I have a lot to say about this. But it was just such an engrossing episode. The atmosphere and tension, I have actually notes about that as well. So we'll get to that, but just, I just enjoyed it so much. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, even though I've read Fire and Blood, and I know by the title of this episode exactly what's gonna happen in this episode, more or less, it was so well done. But okay, let's talk about things. There's so much that's going on in this episode that I wasn't sure exactly how to split up my notes. It didn't really make sense to me to do a bunch of character sections, although it is a very character-driven episode, but I feel like it would just be like a tons of mini sections. So I do have some sections about characters because I have to. A lot of it's kind of events or subjects that kind of encompass a lot. So that's what we're doing. Let's get started. So first I wanna talk about the prophecy, because I did see a lot of chatter about this from the previous episode. People disliking the idea that the mutterings of the prophecy that we got from Viserys or, more importantly, that Alison got from Viserys, all right, before he dies, that this is setting up the idea for her to believe that he would like Aegon to be king. And I was pretty vocal in my video talking about how I liked that, that they brought the prophecy into it in a meaningful way to the plot as opposed to just being a tie into Game of Thrones, and that it continued the trend of having Viserys share different things with different people where Alison and Rhaenyra hear different things from him. So I was quite vocal about liking it, but I saw a lot of chatter about the idea that, oh, this just gives Alison an excuse to do what she's gonna do, basically saying that like, because there's nothing like that in the book, right? And so then Alison's choosing to usurp Rhaenyra's claim to place her son on the throne is in theory motivated purely by ambition. But Fire and Blood is written like a history book. So a lot of this show is filling in the details, filling in the gaps, filling in the, okay, we know this happened because the book says this happened, but like, what did that conversation sound like? Like, okay, so they decided to do this, but why? And some stuff they've outright changed, which is, you know, as long as you're telling a good story, I really don't care. So I mean, I'm not suggesting that the, we're meant to read, now go back and read Fire and Blood and think, oh, we're meant to read between the lines and Viserys shared a prophecy with her. And that's why she decided to do this. No, I don't think that that's the case. This is a ultimately different story they're telling because they have made changes. But also you don't know from Fire and Blood what was going through Allison's mind when she did any of the things that she did because it's just not that kind of book. We don't get deep dives into character introspection, et cetera, et cetera. So some stuff you can pretty confidently speculate about based on what is publicly stated and what history tells us and went down, et cetera. But for the most part, it's that's why I think that as a creative, it would be a daunting but exciting challenge to take on Fire and Blood and say, okay, we know the outline of what happened, but we have to fill in how that happened, what they really thought and said that led to this happening. The idea that this would be part of what led her to do what she did, that doesn't bother me at all. I think in particular, and I haven't noticed about this, that this version of Allison, I think that that is almost necessary. Not that it specifically needs to be this, but something like this because Allison has been painted throughout this show the character of Allison as depicted in House of the Dragon while she does a lot of mental gymnastics to justify her actions, she constantly talks about duty and honor and doing what is right for the rules and resents Reynira. At least part of why she resents Reynira is the sort of flouting of the rules, flouting of what is moral. And so I think that this, Allison, would require that nudge. I mean, it would require some kind of an external reason that would allow her to justify to herself these actions. I do think this Allison needs that. So that provided that. But for people saying, oh, now this just is like her excuse and just justifies everything that comes next, it really doesn't. Because we all heard what Viserys said, it was rambling, incoherent. If you knew the prophecy, you'd be like, I think I know what he's saying. But to interpret those ramblings as confirmation that Viserys categorically wants Aegon, his son from Allison, not Reynira, that that Aegon should succeed him. I think you have to want to already believe that that's what he wants and thinks in order to read that from what he said, if that makes sense. So basically I'm saying, Allison has to have already decided that that's what she wants this to mean in order to have any possibility of interpreting his words in this way. You know, it's literally like reading tea leaves. You know, you went into looking at these tea leaves with something in mind that you wanted them to predict for you and said, wow, the shape of these leaves totally confirms that. So his ramblings, for her to interpret it the way that she did, it's mainly her wanting to hear that in it. I also like how the manner of this telling, the manner of this deathbed confession, it being his dying wish, her behavior, it lends it sort of this religious zealotry, her wanting to execute on his dying wish. Cause I mean, for whatever reason throughout history, we've put more importance on someone's dying wishes than on anything else they said in their lifetime. Even though one could easily think that someone's deathbed wish might be less reliable as to their general state of thinking because they're dying and may not be in their right mind. He clearly was not. But the way that this then gives her this opportunity to be like his dying words where that Aegon should be king. And I mean, they really weren't, but it is a kind of religious zealotry that takes over with her, which I think is very fitting for the type of character that they've depicted Alison to be in the show. Okay, so moving on then to the council itself, the eponymous green council. I did think it was a darkly amusing that Alison debalks at the idea of murdering Rhaenyra, but witnesses murder during the green council and doesn't seem to bother by it. Which later in the episode, I think the fact of this happening at the council, it does lend some marriage to Otto's assertion later when he's talking to Alison. And when she's insisting that we can't murder Rhaenyra because Viserys would not have wanted this, we're doing this thing of putting Aegon on the throne because that's what Viserys wanted according to Alison. Going with that theme then, then you have to do whatever else you believe Viserys would have wanted, which is when she's like, he would not have wanted you to murder Rhaenyra, which is when Otto Hightower is like, is it Viserys that wouldn't want to murder Rhaenyra or is it you? I don't think he means to suggest that Viserys would want to murder Rhaenyra because I don't think anybody would possibly believe that. But what he's getting at is like, are you so specifically stuck on let's not hurt Rhaenyra because of Viserys or because of yourself? Which again, like the fact that in the council, when poor Beesbury gets murdered right in front of Alison, she's like, ah, Kristen Cole's still my dude, like doesn't really bat an eye at that. So yeah, like I don't think Viserys would have wanted Beesbury murdered either, but she doesn't seem that upset about it. But in general, just Olivia's performance throughout the episode, but in particular during the council was, I mean, as much as we all went on and on and on and I included went on and on and on about Viserys, about Patty's performance as Viserys in particular the previous episode, Olivia's performance as Alison in this episode is also award worthy. The way that she shows mainly on her face, it's not a ton of dialogue, she mainly conveys on her face this emotional journey of all of these things going on with her, right? She's reeling from Viserys' death, which I mean, it was not entirely unexpected but it's still no one expected it to happen that day. So Viserys is dead, that already puts the world topsy-turvy. Then she believes that when he died, he shared this also world-altering wish that Aegon should be on the throne. She seems to at least have convinced herself that that's what he was trying to say. So for what it's worth, she does believe that. So that's a lot to take in. It's a big change from what he's done his entire life. Prospective now, what to do about that? Do you act on that? Cause she knows she was the only one to hear this. So if she sincerely believes that this is what he said, but she knows that there's no one to back that up, that he didn't do it in front of everybody, that like if it's between what she says he said on his deathbed and Reynira who was presented to the kingdom as his heir and everyone bent the knee, you know, like it's pretty, hers is a lot shankier. So like, do you share this? Do you move on this? Do you act on this? So she's, you know, stressing about that obviously because she also has been made to believe that the consequences of not acting on that are the imminent death of her children. Then the realization that while she has just started grappling with this idea, it turns out her small council, or at least a lot of her small council have already been planning to do this very thing before Viserys made a deathbed confession or a deathbed wish. They just presumed that this is what the actions they would take regardless. So she has to take that in because I mean, that's I guess convenient because the plans are already there. You don't have to do too much, but allowing this idea to take hold because she was given a license by what she believed were Viserys last words. And to hear that her council didn't need those words to already be planning this, that's a lot for Alison to take in. And then again, what to do about that? Okay, like she believes this was Viserys dying wish, but her council seems to have been ready to commit treason before this became the king's wish. So this is your team. You've assembled a team of people who are ready to do treason. How do we feel about that? And then coming to grips with what else will be required. So I already alluded to the idea that Rayneara would need to be murdered, that she's coming to grips with, okay, like Viserys just died. And he just said he wanted, as far as she believes that Aegon should ascend the throne. But the reality of like, okay, but if A is Viserys death and Z is Aegon being crowned, there are a lot of steps in between before you get there and what all that will entail. And her finally like coming to grips with what this will mean, what actions will need to be taken in order to make this a reality, including the murder of Rayneara. And she seems to be very reluctant about all of it. And then draws the line at murdering Rayneara. And seems to be just like she convinced herself that Viserys wants this, she's convincing herself that she can do this, that she can get Aegon on the throne and keep Rayneara alive and she can do it all. So there's a lot of new reality that she's being faced with and a lot of new delusions that she needs to feed herself to make sense of all this. But she's also realizing, like I said, her small council has been quite devious already that they were planning this all along and that her father is a big part of that. And she has been willfully naive about her father's intentions. But this moment of, again, it's not that she doesn't really know what he's up to and how manipulative he's been because she's been ultimately the pawn he's moved. It's not like she doesn't know. But it's this kind of thing that, for many people in real life, there are things that you kind of know that it takes a very intense moment or an intense kind of lit mistest for you to really come to grips with, like, my God. Like, yeah, like you are, I've just been letting you do this and I haven't really let myself look at that but she really does kind of confront what her father is like and what he has been doing this whole time. And again, has to make sense to herself. She's like, okay, that's what he's been doing but whatever, it doesn't matter. Visteri's wants Aegon to be king and that's what we're doing, it's right. It's the right thing. We're not murdering Era because that's the wrong thing. We're doing only the right thing. She's, you know, found a way to convince herself of that. Which, again, for this version of Allicent is a very compelling arc and makes a lot more sense. If she just randomly decided to do this, that would be inconsistent for how she has been written this whole time. So I very much like this choice. And again, what I was getting at is that the performance of Olivia, performing the role of Allicent, having these revelations and this turmoil and this internal mental gymnastics that's happening in real time, she did an incredible job playing Allicent in this critical moment, so well done. And in general, not just Allicent, but this council, which again, in the book, you know, it happens. And we know what is decided and we know, you know, who dies. But we obviously don't get a scene like in a novel where we see what everybody said and how it all went down. So I think the writers did a fantastic job kind of showing this scene of like, everybody's about to say the quiet part out loud and who is gonna be willing to go along and who's not. Yeah, it was exceptionally well done and the tension of like, we're all thinking it, who's gonna say it. And then like the one person in the room, well, the two people in the room that don't seem to know what's up are Beesbury and Allicent. But Allicent kind of jumps on board because she believes that Viserys has signed off on this. Beesbury does not because he met the man and the confrontation between Kristen Cole and Westerling. I mean, Kristen can choke. It's again, it's times like this where I'm like, really, Allicent, this is your dude. Like, I don't know how you make that make sense for yourself but okay. I guess I should say that him murdering Beesbury is worse than the confrontation with the commander but they did make the killing of Beesbury look more accidental, which I thought was a good choice as opposed to like him straight up just walking up and killing him. Although he hasn't done that in the past and had zero consequences. So whatever. Moving on then to Allicent and Rhaenys. These are not, these two characters have not really interacted much at all. We've seen Allicent and Rhaenyra. We've seen Rhaenys and Rhaenyra but we haven't really seen Allicent and Rhaenys. So having these two women actually kind of like have a discussion about what's up. I just thought was, well, first of all just amazing seeing the two of them and these two kind of very different perspectives and approaches kind of meeting and having a pretty honest conversation. And there was this kind of glimpse of what Allicent might have been like if she'd had someone like Rhaenyys in her life all along a strong female presence someone other than her father guiding her showing her that there is another way because Allicent has again, like Rhaenyys is impressed on some level with Allicent but it's, you know, Allicent has been so poisoned by circumstance and by the culture they live in and by her father specifically. And, you know, how much she was lacking the guiding hand of a strong female like Rhaenyys. So it's almost, you know, kind of like watching the dinner from the previous episode like that all that almost what if, what could have been seeing Allicent with Rhaenyys it's this moment of like, you know, Allicent is a formidable woman in her own right and had she but been surrounded by different people from an early age, how differently things might have turned out how different she might be. That she is a person that on some level Rhaenyys can and does respect because of what she's accomplished and what she has been willing to do. But the cognitive dissonance of Allicent telling Rhaenyys that Rhaenyys should have been queen and it was stolen from her while she is presently plotting the usurping of Rhaenyra's throne is just like, girl, do you hear yourself? I really also loved about this scene that by the end of it, you don't really feel certain about what Rhaenyys will choose to do, which we'll get to the end of the episode which I understand people have strong feelings about but I like that this scene we're left off with wondering what is Rhaenyys going to choose to do She said at the end of the conversation that she would keep her oath but that's not the final answer. Allicent is like, okay, well ring the bell when you have an answer so it's still undecided and the way that she is kind of weighing Allicent, it doesn't feel like a hard shutdown of like never, I'd never join you. There is uncertainty about what Rhaenyys would choose to do. So moving on then to King's Landing, we have this sort of repeating of history, both in present time and what we were seeing happen and also in history when we hear from Eamond talking about Aegon bringing him to King's Landing, the same way that Daemon brought Rhaenyra, the place to corrupt your relative, your younger relative. So basically Eamond had a Rhaenyra experience that was a lot less pleasant and successful than Rhaenyra's was with Daemon but he is, you know, everyone has of course commented on how much Eamond looks like Daemon and he's got his like hoodie on as he goes to King's Landing. Kristen is dressed almost kind of like the way Rhaenyra was dressed when they went down with the little hat and kind of the brown clothes. I did find it kind of silly that this sort of covert operation of let's find Aegon turns into this quite public brawl. This was before cell phone cameras because I mean, otherwise a small folk would be like, oh, that's the prince currently fighting in the streets with his Kingsguard and his brother. Like it was, it was very not covert. So that just seemed kind of ridiculous to me. It also seemed ridiculous to me that Aegon was stuffed in the altar. Like who put him there? I mean, I know who put him there but why did no one notice him being put in there? Why would he want to be in there? Why does he seem upset about being taken out of the altar? Like it's just, I would have made more sense to me if he was secreted away in a small private room maybe the door is locked but he's being drugged or screwed or whatever that's keeping him happy that he's in La La Land of some kind or other but that he's stuffed in the altar? That was just, what? I don't know, that was strange to me. If it makes sense to you, let me know. But I did enjoy here another opportunity to see a sort of an almost, I love the times again when this show has shown us the other paths that history could have gone down. So here we have the brief moment where Aegon is trying to convince Amon to let him go and he's like, let me go, I'll run away and then they'll crown you king and Amon seems pretty on board with this plan until Kristen Cole comes by and ruins it all. But there is this glimpse of like, history could have gone down that way. You know, what if instead of being stuffed in the altar, Aegon had heard they were looking for him and jumped on a boat and like yeeted on out of there. They might have crowned Amon, might very well and what would history look like if they had? So I just, I loved that moment of like, you can see Amon's like, okay, you've talked me into it. I will consider this before of course that is all done away with and becomes impossible. Moving on then to Allison and Larry's strong. I don't have a lot to say about this, but I feel like I can't not talk about this scene because like 90% of the memes are about this scene. I personally feel like that scene was there just for like an HBO shock value scene. I found it pretty, found it pretty ridiculous because I just, I can't imagine under what circumstances this would become a thing between Allison and Larry's why he would be able to get such favors from her. If we're meant to assume it's blackmail over the whole you had me kill Harwen, therefore I get to see your feet and jerk off in front of you like she's the queen. So no, and I mean for that reason, like that she is the queen. Like that's what he gets out of this relationship. That's what he has over her not to get off, but to have power, to have influence, to have a seat at the table because of what he has on the queen. So it's just, it's just absurd to me that this would be going on on a regular basis between them or even an irregular basis between them. I mean, there's the whole like, you know where do you get off Allison? You're being such a hypocrite. Like this is deviant behavior, blah, blah, blah. But that's not even a bother to me. I'm just like, in what world will this become a thing between them? You know, like she's the queen. I just, I don't see this happening unless she was into it, which is clearly not. If they really, really wanted to have a scene about showing how much he's into her feet, if they had just had a scene where because she feels comfortable around him, she takes off her shoes and her feet do become visible and he notices and she notices him noticing and then just like doesn't do anything about it. And then he, after she walks away, he starts jerking off or whatever, but not right in front of her. I just, that was just laughable to me. That was ridiculous. And it's not because it's like, oh, it's just too gross, it's disgusting. I just like, I just don't see this happening. You know, like it was just dumb to me personally. Moving on then to Aegon and Allicent. Again, this is not too long a scene, but I think it's a really important scene that I'm one that I very, very much enjoyed. It's, you know, she's finally got Aegon and they're in the carriage on the way to the coronation. And I loved the fact that Aegon is calling her on her bullshit and being like, you know, I've known dad all my life too and he had plenty of opportunity to name me his heir if that's what he wanted to do. And he decidedly did not. So I, I loved that, like Allicent is still like that's what he wanted, that's what he wanted. And Aegon is like, bullshit, that's what he wanted. Like, no, this is no, he wouldn't. I really enjoyed that kind of like, it almost made Aegon a likable character. In fact, I mean, the entire episode up until the coronation, it's not really that, I mean, we've seen him do kind of cruel things in previous episodes, but just based on this episode, you know, he just seems like kind of a lost soul that really shouldn't be handed power. He clearly hates himself as much as he hates other people. You know, he just wants to be like out of it on drugs and drinking and screwing. And that's, he seems pretty miserable and self-hating and never really felt like he had the love of his father. And, you know, like he's kind of a pathetic figure that you kind of can't help but feel bad for. And he's the fact that he has this kind of like realistic honesty, like when he talks to Aemond earlier and he's like, I'm not suited to be king. I don't want to be king. You should be king. You are suited to be king. This like, in Aemond's like, I mean, yeah, I don't know, that's what I think. So glad you agree. Like Aigan's not laboring under any delusions about himself. He's not saying, oh, I should be king. He's like, nah, I don't want it. I would be bad at it. And when Allison is like, your father wanted this, he's like, no, he didn't. Like, are you kidding me? I knew him. I met him. There's just no way. So it was a very kind of likeable couple of moments for Aigan. Then of course, having a crowd cheer for him later on does a lot to change someone's mind. Pretty understandably. It's not hard to begin to believe your own myth if everyone around you is telling you the same. But I mean, the fact that when he says, do you love me, mom, Allison doesn't say, yes, of course I do. The fact that what she says is you imbecile. Just the fact that that's the choice of words in the script for this scene, you know, it was an opportunity for her to say that she loves him and she is either unwilling or unable to say the words but wants to, you know, bolster him. So she calls him an imbecile and like, this is the dude that you're fighting to get on the throne. And like, I know she doesn't literally mean he's an imbecile but like, you know, it's like that moment you're like, you can't even manage to say you love him. You just call them an imbecile as you're on your way to like shove him on the throne. It's just, I think it's really telling. And then again, here, her trying to convince Aigan, she's like, she's been talking throughout the episode of like, she can steer him, she can guide him. Like, his rule will be better because she's around there to give him good counsel and to make sure things are done right, that he's a merciful king. And like, that sounds all well and good throughout the episode but like now when like, rubber hits the road and she's talking to Aigan, she's like, finally got him this moment to like influence him. And she's like, my father is going to tell you to murder Rainier and you must disregard that you must be merciful. And it's just like, in what world, lady, do you think he's actually gonna listen to you? As soon as you stick a crown on his head, you know, there's this moment of desperation when she's like, you can't do this, you have to be merciful. And you're like, like, do you really think that's gonna influence him? Are you really that delusional? Cause I don't know, it doesn't seem likely that that's gonna affect him. And at last we come to the coronation scene, which I have not had time for the last several weeks to look at anything on the internet really, in terms of like actual reaction discourse or reviews. I barely have time to like do mine, but I am told that people are displeased with Rainier's behavior at the end of this episode. So let's talk about it. And in general, for this coronation scene, I loved seeing the chaos of King's Landing from Rainier's perspective, the fact that we got her out there and she was with the small folk. So we got the perspective of the small folk through her. It was kind of reminiscent to me of Arya being swept up in like the chaos of the small folk when there's the beheading of Ned Stark and Game of Thrones. So I liked that. So we kind of got eyes on the chaos of that and the way that like the people are being like herded like cattle. The coronation itself was just so fantastically shot. That slow procession where with each step, the lowering of the swords feels like it's just like further solidifying this decision. Every step Aegon takes, he looks a little bit more confident, a little more sure. Every step locks this decision more into place sort of. The music was amazing. You know, the episode, the music was fantastic. I love the way that they showed the uncertainty of the crowd, how fickle the crowd is, that like the approbation of the people, it means everything and it means nothing because you can only rule with the approval of the people that you are ruling. They are the majority so they have the power to overthrow you. So their love is kind of everything but at the same time, like the fact of them loving or hating you is kind of like it can change on a dime. You know, they're shoved into here, don't know what's happening, are treated like cattle and at first they're like, what, what's happening? Who's this? And then, you know, you put on a good show and lift a sword and they're like, okay, yeah, that's our king, let's cheer but they could as easily start booing. So I thought that was really effectively done showing kind of how the people react to this, that they don't have any strong stake in this. They're not going to be like, how dare you? I must, I would rather die than bend the knee to this guy. Like they don't really care that much about it because it doesn't affect their life that much but they're not super on board with it immediately. They're not automatically like, oh, our prince is now king. Woo, they're like, what? I don't know about this. I don't know, okay, all right, I guess we're cheering. So I just thought that was so well done. Kristen crowning him is weird to me. I mean, throughout the show, we've seen Kristen, he slept with Rhaenyra. Like he broke his oath as a white cloak and slept with Rhaenyra. He murdered the prince consort's boyfriend in front of everybody and he murdered Beesbury in the Green Council. He was abusing Rhaenyra's children. He crossed blades with the Lord Commander earlier that day. Like this motherfucker gets to crown the king. Like just like, okay, why not? But also, if the person doing the crowning is in any way meant to be a portent for what this reign will be like. I mean, Kristen Cole is one of the pettiest, most unpleasant, most self-centered people in the show. So he's the one crowning you. That's a pretty dark mark on your forthcoming reign, in my opinion. But Aegon then sort of fully embracing his role as king. Again, I think it was well done in this one episode, seeing his whole arc of like, I absolutely do not want to be king. And then on the way to the coronation being like, I mean, I have accepted that you're going to do this to me, but this is BS. No one wants this, me least of all. And then seeing him march in there and with every step being like, okay, okay. And then gets up there and gets anointed. And the power of ceremony, I mean, it can really affect you. Like even though it's fairly empty, that going through these motions that you know have historical significance, this ceremony would is kind of making this all real and serious and then having the crown and the sword and then the cheers of the people that this would make this real and change his mind. I thought it was very well done and the actor performed it very well. I said that Aegon's actor didn't impress me or displeased me in the previous episode, but here he did very much impress me. I think he's going to be a great Aegon. He already is a great Aegon. The way that Allison looked kind of like relieved when he's crowned, but also kind of uncomfortable still. Like she doesn't, she doesn't look fully like, yes, this is right and this is my wonderful son and this is going to be great. She looks like she's still filled with a great deal of trepidation over what they've just done. And then we come to Rhaenys and her dragon. So my understanding is that people are mad on two counts. One, that she doesn't care about the small folk that she probably killed by getting her dragon up and out of there. And the fact that she didn't dracarys the entire green camp. And neither bothers me in so far as like the writing of this character. Someone misinterpreted me in a previous video where I said that I did or didn't have a problem with something and they seemed to think I meant like actually morally speaking, like in real life. Like these people are murdering people and doing terrible things. Like I don't actually approve of this behavior. When I talk about having a problem with something, I'm talking about the writing. So to be clear, I don't think it's cool to murder a bunch of people with a dragon. Okay. But I don't have any problem with writing Rhaenys as a character that would do this. Because there has been no indication that she loves the small folk that she cares at all. I mean, throughout the show, I mean, even Rhaenyra is kind of like doesn't understand the importance of the small folk doesn't care. And Daemon is the one that's like, you know, it matters with the small folk thing. And she's like, okay, I guess. Rhaenys is a princess that's lived of a removed life, never has to touch the small folk. They're just there to serve. They're just there to be the people. The people won rules. And you have a vague sense on a chessboard of what will and will not affect them and what is and is not good policy. But I mean, when has she been a feelsy character? Or even professed, or even put words to feeling that way about the small folk. She hasn't. So I don't think it's unlikely that a Targaryen who's witnessed a coup would be like, I'm out of here with my dragon. And if there's collateral damage, I mean, so be it. And then part two, her not dracarysing the green council. Again, like she's, as her conversation with Allison has demonstrated as the previous conversations we've seen her have like with Rhaenyra, this, she doesn't really have a dog in this fight, not really directly. Her granddaughters are with Rhaenyra. So if she has a dog in this fight, it's over there. And as, you know, Rhaenyra, her situation would mirror Rhaenys as if anyone's, you know, that her throne's been stolen from herself in that sense, they'd be aligned. But there's no reason why she would be like, on Rhaenyra's behalf, I will now commit regicide. That's, that would be a lot. She's kind of like on her own team, you know, kind of like to say about Jack Sparrow, like whose side is Eonys on his own side? So she has, when a push comes to shove, she's gonna go back Rhaenyra. But it's up to Rhaenyra to decide what she's gonna do about this whole usurping and coup. So she'll go back her, but it's not, she's not gonna decide to kill these people over it. Like she wasn't the one done out of a throne. It was Rhaenyra. So she'll go to Rhaenyra and let Rhaenyra decide what's gonna happen. But she's not gonna just up and kill the newly crowned king and his queen mother and the septan and everything. Like, why would she? You know, like if Rhaenyra wants to go to war over this and let Rhaenyra decide that that's what she's gonna do. You know, it's not really her business. It totally checks out for me that she'd kind of think about it there for a sec. Like, I mean, I have the opportunity right now. I'm on my dragon. I could just your car easy right now, but like, this is not really my fight. So I'm out. You can't make me bend the knee to you, but like, you know, I'm not gonna murder you all. Bye. That completely checks out for me as what Rhaenys would do. So it was kind of a bit ridiculous in terms of just like spectacle of her coming up out of the ground with her dragon. Like that was done obviously to have a show moment, much like the beheading of her brother-in-law, which again, like Rhaenys witnessed the beheading of her brother-in-law and was like, oh, bummer. You know, like, she's the idea that she'd be like brokenhearted over peasants dying. It's just really not who she's been in the show so far. It checks out. It's a bit ridiculous. It's a bit extravagant to the scene. But in terms of her character motivation, I have zero issue with it. But briefly about Rhaenys, I mean, the fact that, as I said, in that scene after she and Allison have their chat, we actually don't know what Rhaenys would have chosen to do. Had she not been rescued and given the opportunity to leave. If that hadn't happened, if she was stuck in King's Landing, locked in her room, and Allison was gonna come back and demand an answer, we don't really know what Rhaenys would have chosen to do. She was offered an out and she took it. But yeah, we still don't know what she would have decided if things had gone differently. So my final thoughts on this episode are as I said, this was an amazing episode. The way that they build the tension throughout and sort of this like tick-tock-tick-tock towards zero hour of the coronation, you just felt the tension and suspense of that and the like a time bomb, you know, that it were ticking down towards this, what needs to happen. And I thought that they did that brilliantly with the way they shot it. The way that they, the music was, I mean, I always love that music, I mean, Jowati whites, but it really, it lent even more tension to these scenes. I'm glad they didn't just push through the green council and make it like half of an episode, which they easily could have done. They could have just said, okay, here's the council, they decided to do this. They crown and gone. Okay, move on to the rest of the episode and bring your reaction to that. They could have done that. And it would have been fine, but I like that they gave this its own episode because this is such an important moment. So it deserves its own episode of that alone just because something's important. I mean, doesn't mean you have enough story to fill an hour. I talked before about, I think in like the first video I did on House of the Dragon about how worse shows will just, you know, dramatically have characters staring into the middle distance and people are like, the show is boring. It's just a bunch of empty filler. Nothing's happening. And then other things will have characters standing in the middle distance and it'll be epic. And like, well, what's the difference? Well, this was a great episode where we had a ton of scenes where we just cut to a character and there wasn't necessarily a conversation happening. They weren't doing anything. We were just being shown them staring into the middle distance. And this is exactly an example of like, when you, it is a good idea to do that because this episode is all about how these characters are sitting with the weight of what they are contemplating, what is being contemplated, what they are going to be complicit in. And that's not something to be taken lightly. And if this episode had just rushed through that, it would still be a good show. But the fact that they made us then also sit with that and see how much these characters are like, this is a big turning point. What we're about to do cannot be undone. What we are contemplating is like a big fucking deal. And for different characters have different reasons for feeling different ways about it, but they all feel a great deal about it. So, you know, I've talked a lot about Alison's feelings about this. That's a lot that she's dealing with. But I mean, even for Otto Hightower who's been kind of planning this, like this is still the moment where you're like, if we do this, we are almost guaranteed to have civil war, which is why Alison is like, no, you're going to want to murder Rainier to prevent that. But, you know, he can't be certain that the hit he would succeed in that. So whatever happens, like what you're about to do here is about to have huge repercussions. So for everyone, Rainier is just trying to decide what she's going to do now that Alison is, you know, saying, join me. What is she going to do? She doesn't really have a ton of support network on her side of this is the winning team, you know? There's so many instances throughout where there's, you know, lesser characters, unnamed characters who are, you know, we see how they're trying to decide what they are willing to die for, essentially. You know, when Otto stands before them and is like, are you going to bend the knee to Angon? Most of them bend the knee because they don't want to die. But some of them have decided that this is the hill they're dying on or are willing to potentially die on. And so we're just seeing so many characters deal with this like battle line being drawn and which side of it they're going to fall on. What's worth it to them? So the tension of that and the way that we were shown this for a full episode to really like bring home the significance of what was done here, how world altering these events are, that they're given their proper due and weight in the story that we didn't rush through, but we gave it a whole episode. I'm so glad they did that and it was so well done. I mean, I did miss seeing Rainier and Damon because they're great characters. But again, I love the fact that we did not see them at all, that we are now left to wait and see how they will take in this news. Because again, if we had rushed to that, it would feel like, okay, this was done and now we're going to see the reaction. But like this is given the time to breathe as like this moment that throughout the episode we're building towards and people are deciding to do it and then it is done. And now we wait to see the repercussions of these incredibly divisive and controversial actions. So I love that it didn't show that. It didn't show the reaction. It's like, okay, we did the thing, let the chips fall where they may, dun, dun, dun. Such a good choice. Throughout the episode, the acting was amazing. Like I said, you know, Alison was amazing, but everyone, Rainier was great. Aegon and Amond were great. The Eric and Ark, Kristen, you know, you hate him but like the actor's doing a good job making him very hateful, so well done. Aegon got more of a chance to shine. I really enjoyed watching Aegon's performance. It was just such an excellent episode, so well done. And as always, the music was perfect. Really added to the suspense and tension. Oh, just chef's kiss from Ian Jowati can do no wrong. So yeah, those are my thoughts on this penultimate episode. Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below. Did you like it? Did you dislike it? How you feel about those controversial scenes, the feet and Rainier sent her a dragon. Whatever you want me to know. I put the videos on Saturdays. Other random times are full, but definitely Saturdays. So like and subscribe, join my Patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you.