All Series Must Die (Which Is Why There Are New Ones) -- The Game of Thrones Series Spinoffs

although tbh dragon fandom is a rubicon i don’t think i will ever cross

like knowing all their names like my little ponies (sunfire!? lmao)
too much commitment for me

like i dig Aegon’s dragon bc it’s fucking huge.
it’s name? raygar vaygar gaydar idk it escapes me.
Big Fuckoff Dragon wins. the end.

I always refer to Aemond's dragon as Big Honker

i’m into Ringer’s House of R podcast recaps - they have a weekly scene by scene deep dive that seemed excessive at first but now i’m v into it because I can never remember shit from GOT and I don’t know much lore

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, July 8, 2024 5:02 PM bookmarkflaglink

YESSSS Ringer's House of R is great.

Chris, Mallory, and Joanna recapping it like a sports season always cracks me up.

Mallory predictably reduced to tears describing the bond between rider and dragon

lol yes vmic for Mallory

and i realize i said aegon when i meant aemon re big fuckoff dragon obv

these names are going to kill me

Aegon, Egon, Egg-On, Egg, Ayyyygon and Steve

Rhaegar Eagon Aemon Dozy Beaky Mick And Titch

Talk the Thrones and House of R are the same podcast. TtT is the one-hour instant recap they do, and then later the week they do the epic deep dives. I only do the short ones because even as I’m into the show, I can’t devote myself to a 3.5 hour weekly podcast.

oh lol yr right i forgot that

yeah i started with Talk only, like was repelled by the idea of a 3hr recap

…but i do regularly listen to Bandsplain so it’s not like 3+hr podcasts are not NOT for me

so yeah once i warmed up to their nerdiness i discovered i could cope with the full experience

I am loving just about everything this season, but the one nagging nit for me is Alyn. He seems like a compelling character and someone who I’ll enjoy watching eventually. But they’ve now done exactly one scene per episode with Alyn standing on the dock fixing Corlys’ boat, essentially repeating the same conversation each time but with a different person. This guy needs a new setting with something to do! I imagine following the most recent episode, and Corlys’ inevitable response next week, that will finally change.

Yes! That has been driving me a little nuts too, there seems to be absolutely no forward motion with that!

I think they revealed quite a bit about it in the conversation between Corlys and Rhaenys, although they are hinting at a somewhat different direction from the book.

yeah that definitely stuck out to me too

This season has been great af and this episode was incredible. What an ending, I rarely find the battle scenes in these compelling but this ruled: drunk out of his depth Aegon, Rhaenys shrewd but still gazumped by a man, Aemond just ruthless. The second he saw Sunfyre fly over his head I knew what was going to happen. Just not the how. You really get a sense of the sheer destruction of the dragons, like little tactical nukes that go off multiple times and can asphyxiate an area from their dying breaths too.

Also liked the Daemon/Aemond parallels a lot. You know they’re going to fight and at least one of them’s going to die.

Also Vhagar is one of the original three dragons of House Targaryen which is why he’s so huge compared to the others, that fucker is much older. I never read the book (?) this series is adapted from but I know the backstory from the books. Oh yeah, common Criston Cole L.

Sunfyre and Seasmoke are total my little pony names, agreed xps

they mentioned this in Talk The Thrones, they did an excellent job of giving you geographical points of reference in the dragon battle and making it feel so real and thrilling to watch without getting lost in the cgi of it all

in terms of the irl distance covered in the battle?

I liked the way all the dragon riders had distinct fighting styles, like Melys just raking the shit out of Sunfyre with the talons

not distance but like, up in the air with the land semi-regularly being IN the frame

Ah right yeah makes sense

rook's rest battle was one of the best sequences in either series. really sad, brutal, and hard to watch!

Dragon warfare is incredible to watch. Well done polygons. Mallory Rubin always geeked out over saying "Caraxes" with extra vocal fry last season.

With the price of goats in King's Landing, you might ask "Why aren't you driving a vegan dragon?" This is why. Give me a big honker.

I love the battle scenes but with each fallen dragon I get a bit stressed out because they are pretty rare and I do not like seeing them get totaled.

was unprepared for the “rain of dragon entrails” element … as were the poor folks who copped it yeesh

oh yeah the dragon blood scalding the soldiers was an incredible touch

will never get tired of dragon battles I fear

great episode, knew exactly what was going to happen the moment aegon suited up and it was very satisfying when it did lol

whomst among us hasn’t gotten drunk and recklessly flown a dragon into battle

Where people suprised that Aemond took out Aegon? I feel like that was telegraphed since last season.

I wasn’t surprised by his desire but I was surprised by his brazenness

not surprised no
i guess maybe more shocked by the action of the sequence, and the bloodymindedness of it, going for it out in the open with whoever on the ground watching it all happen like wow dude really did that

yeah they definitely built that up for awhile

bummed criston cole is still around though, i hate that guy so much. I was trying to figure out where I’d seen alicent’s brother before, just clocked that he’s Spider from Slow Horses lol

yeah criston is a choad

Also King Hugo on the Great, where he was...great.

Yeah I suppose surprised that Aemond would clearly go after Aegon before good older lady who's name i'm too lazy to look up. At first thought it'd be like "friendly fire" but no.

Least surprising development ever, only question I had was if Cole would connect Aemond standing over his (dying? wasn’t he still hanging on?) brother with sword in his hand with malevolent intent since he clearly can’t use “putting him out of his misery” as an excuse.

my guess is Criston would connect it and try to use it as leverage somehow maybe?

Seems accurate but given his success rate so far you’d have to imagine it ends in tears 🤞🏻

I thought they had shown Criston and Aemond to be scheming buddies enought that he'd be like "whatever, 1 eyed brothers better"

Criston has a weird moral code, where I don’t think he could justify plotting Aegon’s death (especially since he is the Hand). Thats a level of dishonor he couldn’t handle. Meanwhile scheming a battle tactic with Aemond without checking with the king first is Ae-OK

yeah that is otm

dude’s whole moral code is basically a series of sand dunes

and he's really just pissed still that Rhaenyra wouldn't run off with him I assume.

I was trying to figure out where I’d seen alicent’s brother before, just clocked that he’s Spider from Slow Horses lol

― Roz, Wednesday, 10 July 2024 15:54 (one hour ago) link

THANK YOU

Poor actor, he has one of those "smug bad guy" faces like James Spader

yeah, it took me a minute to realize it was the endlessly hateable "spider" from Slow Horses. he's a good addition, with strong personality and a grounded, identifiable sense of reason... good foil for sir criston cole. hopefully he'll stick around for a while.

i don't think it would've been visible to folks on the ground that aemond was attacking aegon. would they have clocked the intricacies of the interpersonal dynamics or would they just have been like, "aaahhhh wtf three dragons ahhhh"

Criston was genuinely upset Aegon died even if it just meant he failed horribly at his job

Meanwhile he seems to be overachieving at the job of Head of the Queen.

But hey, the glass of moon tea is half full: a slot opened up to name another kid Aegon in case the cuppa Plan B fails

Feels kind of dumb to realize that the reason every character has so many interchangeable offspring is because they need plenty of fodder to support multiple seasons of dragon roastings.

I did get very confused briefly when I thought the woman Daemon was hallucinating was Daenerys

I liked this episode even as it was a quieter one. I think they needed a brief reset after last week

I think this whole Daemon off his gourd at Harrenhal plot has gone on way too long.

Yes I’m ready for that to resolve too.