What is your review of House of the Dragon, season 2, episode 8, "The Queen Who Ever Was"?

Daemon’s reconciliation with Rhaenyra was decent and rousing (the ice and fire nonsense notwithstanding). It’s quite a departure from the book, but at this stage I’m honestly just happy to see Matt Smith doing something. Daemon is at his best whipping an army into a battle frenzy and taking action.

Aemond and Helaena. I liked the raw emotion in both scenes. Aemond is desperate, Helaena shows genuine bravery. Her prophecy was on the nose (did they have to name-drop God’s Eye?) but it was nice to see her show some agency as one of the few decent people in this family. Aemond has no problem throwing his sister into battle, but I didn’t get the sense he would have actually killed her. Interesting to make Helaena the only person who can get away with taking Aemond to task. They could have done a lot more with that dynamic throughout the season. In general, this show really missed the cultivation of human relationships in favor of endless hashing and rehashing.

As usual, the episode looks great and is beautifully shot. The actors are wonderful and perfectly cast. The music is fantastic. But the plot deviations this season are, overall, a steaming pile.

How did Madri, mother of Nakula and Sahadeva die?

Eh.

It works that Ulf is slimy and getting a taste of power, but I’m not really buying that a medieval commoner would outright insult the crown prince and try to strong arm the queen at dinner—that’s immediate punishment in this very feudal, stratified society, dragon or no. I could see Ulf starting to throw his weight around once he’s won a battle or gained a lordship, but this feels preemptive, and I really don’t understand Rhaenyra putting up with it.

Sigh. And sigh again.

What do you think about me (Aditya Krishna)?

I’m reminded of GRRM’s interview about writers adopting the class structures of the Middle Ages but none of the consequences: They have scenes where the spunky peasant girl tells off the pretty prince. The pretty prince would have raped the spunky peasant girl. He would have put her in the stocks and then had garbage thrown at her.

The Tyland-Triarchy thing was ok, but really didn’t feel like a Season finale type of development. That scene went on way too long for characters they’re shoving in at the last minute.

What went wrong? The writers’ room did shift around some and appears to have shrunk. I also can’t help but suspect that Miguel Sapochnik’s departure played a role in what we’re getting this season. George RR Martin was also a lot more involved in Season 1, though he didn’t specifically write for it. We’ll probably never know for sure. I’m hard on this season because I really think they had something damn good and interesting in Season 1, and it’s infuriating to see so much of it go to shit.

What is the STAR interview method?

Criston Cole had a decent speech about honor but he’s already such a murderous shit it’s a bit meaningless…a doomed shit at that. And really? Gwayne holding him at sword point and all the men around them just don’t give a fuck? That was weird.

Addam (Edit: Alyn, can’t keep them straight) of Hull ripping Corlys a new one. I just thought that speech was super well acted.

Considering how drawn out and redundant this season ultimately was, I honestly have no idea how they’re going to handle the rapid-fire chain of battles and city sacking that now has to take place in Season 3. I suspect they also ultimately tried to stretch Fire and Blood out far beyond the material—for example, doing 4 seasons instead of 3.

We now told, by Senator Grassley, that on the FBI form about the Biden bribery story, there is a Burisma exec who says he has 17 tapes of his deal with the Biden. 15 of Hunter and 2 of Joe Biden? What would this do to Hunter/Joe Biden if released?

Words cannot express how much I hate this. Seriously, what is this shit? Alicent serving up Aegon on a silver platter so she can fuck off into the wilderness? And that insufferable line, “the history books will paint you a cold queen” to retcon literally everything—everything—Alicent does in Fire and Blood. The queen in chains? Alicent slowly losing her mind after years of clinging to power? This deviation is every bit as poorly devised, absurdly sexist and stupidly executed as anything we saw in Season 8 of GOT, and it genuinely makes me concerned for the show’s future. These two women should be mortal enemies at this point—family members have died, including two kids. They’re at war. They. Are. Not. Friends. I’m almost incoherent with how much I despise this.

This was a hot mess. Uneven, lackluster, and at certain points (sigh Alicent and Rhaenyra) downright concerning for the future of the show.

A Song of Ice and Fire…for fuck’s sake. I’m tired. They’ve been pushing this all season, and to have Daemon’s extensive Harrenhal arc culminating in…the White Walkers? More than anything, it feels like they’re trying to retroactively fix the painful writing of Season 8 by writing something equally painful and meaningless. We know how this all ends—it isn’t hopeful or inspiring. Why do the Blacks’ motivations have to be tied up in prophecy and noble self-sacrifice and not ambition? No one wants this.

Hi everybody! I have been looking at posts on narcs and narc abuse on here and if has really helped me out a lot. I am currently struggling with my situation and need some advice/support. I met a narc last year, everything seemed to good to be true. Love bombing, always texting calling and taking me on dates. Everything changed when someone warned me about him out in public in front of him and who he is. This caused a conflict with us and the love bombing seized. he would tell me that everything is okay and i can come and talk. He would set a time limit on me and kick me out after that. he would then text me like everything was fine and we hung out again and after that he completely ghosted me for one week. He came back and texted me a week later laughing about the ghosting and acting like nothing had happened. he continued to text me ( not like in the beginning) make plans with me, then on the day of the plans he would just ghost me. One day he would act interested the next silence. i contacted him a month later and he acted like nothing happened. He was on a vacation and sent me a picture of another woman ( someone he allegedly met on the trip) to strike a reaction but i never gave him one. After the trip he came to my place and was extremely rude, accusing me of going on dates with a bunch of men. The next day he accused me of being an alcoholic and that he wanted nothing to do with me but said well maybe we can be "friends" then ghosted me i assumed at this point it was over and i would never hear from him again. He contacted me on the holiday a month later acting like everything was great. We ended up hanging out a month or so later and when we hung out it went well, i thought things were going in the right direction. after we hung out.. silence. I would try to text him and if he replied it would be very short then he just stopped replying. He ghosted me for almost three months. I thought he was done this time and of course he popped up again like nothing happened. At this point i was getting sick of if so i questioned him as to why he dissapeared and always does this. Of course he had some sob story about a injury and family member dying of cancer. I felt pity for him and he gave me an apology.. so i took him back stupidly. things seemed to be going smooth for a couple months, of course until his family member died and his injury got better he never contacted me and was distant. Menawhile, i was there for him during the difficult time for him. He lied to me about the funeral and never wanted to chat. I was chasing him and he would always claim nothing was wrong but when i said i thought he used me when he was down he could not handle it and would always tell me he didnt care and to go away. I would get so upset i would try texting him to work it out he would barelt respond and if he did he would not be nice about it. we did hang out a couple times after that, he would ignore me after. One day i was like hey i think you are seeing someone else, and i was like well ixam seeing someone so no problem if you are he said " buy bye good luck with your new guy stop contacting me" i was devastated and tried to get into contact with him for weeks then i just gave up and accepted it was over. He ended up contacting me a month later acting like everything was fine. He wanted to go out and have drinks i told him i would. He and i both seemed to have a great time. He ends up ignoring me again. I kept texting him trying to figure out what was wrong. He kept saying everything was fine and i said ok can we hang out again? He said maybe i was like why? He just kept saying maybe … our last conversation we had… i said what is wrong ? He said nothing is wrong everything is fine. I asked him why he keeps saying maybe. He said " maybe but i dont want to see you right now" i said why? He saix " im just not feeling it, if i wanted to date i would" i said why did you contact me less then a week ago wanting to go out? He said i didnt.. even though he did. So i said should i just move on or what? He said whatever you want to do. So i said that he was really confusing me and asked him if he had anything more to say before i move on? My messages were turning green so i panicked he blocked me and reacted irrationally. I said " omg did you block me? My messages are not going through. Even texted him on my work phone asking what was up. And called him twice ( please dont judge me i know it is pathetic i never was this type of girl before him) so he replied and said " Ok I'll block you now" then immedietly blocked me. He has never blocked me before since I have met him he will just ghost. Is this ths final discard aka " grand finale? Did i just push him too far? this has upset me so much its hard to even function.

Jace is ironically the only person having a realistic reaction here in the context of his time and society, but because no one else is, it comes off as disproportionate. However, Jace has now been distilled down to…this in every scene! The character they set up was a decent, brave kid and now he’s just an ass. We wanted Jace in Winterfell and the Pact of Ice and Fire, we got him pouting for six episodes.

By god, Corlys is boring. He had teeth in season one, but not here. And did him renaming his ship after Rhaenys really warrant The Queen Who Never Was becoming the title of the season finale? Or sort of, as it’s actually titled “The Queen Who Ever Was.” Why ever was? Which queen is that referring to? Rhaenys is dead and Rhaenyra ends up being a pretty shit queen, so….? Small gripe, I know, but still.

Let’s start with what did work, because some things did in isolation.

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