No matter how many times Joe watches the show, he'll never pronounce the names right

"History does not remember blood, it remembers names." one of the best lines of this episode.

A simple confrontation with a knife felt like it had more at stake than the entire scene with the volcano in Rings of Power

We're 7 episodes in and Joe is still calling him Damian 🤣🤣😂

RoP is a show where none of the dialogue matters. HotD is a show where even when there isn't any dialogue, it still speaks volumes and when there is dialogue, all of it matters. Nothing is wasted.

Okay Joe, lets do this: Rhaenyra: RAY-near-Uh Corlys: CORE-Liss Daemon: DAY-mun Viserys: VI-sair-ess Laenor: LAY-NOR

"The throne room scene was like Real House Wives" - Alex Bro...what is wrong with this guy? Take your clown shoes all the way off. You think a guard is allowed to touch the queen or the princess? Criston tried to intervene but Daemon came and stopped him. The Lord Commander could do nothing but prevent the other guards from touching the princess and the queen. Alex is making judgements based off completely fabricated "expertise" about how these guards should be acting. Go listen to Shadiversity, an actual medieval expert, who has nothing but praise for this episode. And what you guys are saying about King Viserys is way off too. He's not an idiot, he's forgiving to a fault, and he just wants his literal family to not kill each other. There is so much depth to his character and you guys call him a cartoon caricature.

The fight with the kids was very well choreographed, it felt and sounded like a Zack Snyder fight, very well fucking done.

Viserays isn’t dumb for the sake of it . He knows their bastards . He justifies Rheyneras actions because of how much he loved his wife . He didn’t do right by her and in exchange is trying to through rheynera . It’s so obvious

Alex totally missed what was happening with the Cole scene. When asked to take the kid's eye, he tells Alicent something to the extent of, "I am your protector my Queen." as in that's his job and he only has to adhere to that. He was basically arguing against her in that moment as she was asking him to do something that his job description didn't entail while trying to pretend it did by saying he answers to her. Basically his way of saying, "Unless it involves your safety, leave me out of it." When he begins walking over to the confrontation, he's walking over to defend Alicent against Rhaenyra. Again, not to take the kid's eye. He's adhering to his job of protecting Alicent in that moment.

Outstanding episode. The second half of this episode was spectacular. So much tension, so much drama! HotD is getting spicy!

Filming the awkward funeral first with no one really knowing each other is a similar idea to what James Cameron did with Aliens. He ended up filming the opening of the movie last when everyone knew each other in order to make it seem like they were actually a team while they were eating and preparing. A very simple but effective method, especially for the tension at the funeral.

Episode 7 is what a 10/10 episode looks like. I loved it.

This was the best episode yet, A lot of dramatic and important moments

"History does not remember blood, it remembers names." If only Joe could remember names...

“He may have lost an eye but he gained a dragon.” Chills. Good stuff.

Sir Cole wasn't gonna take the kids eye, for some reason everyone read it that way. When the queen said he served her, he replied "as your protector" meaning he's more of a shield than a sword she can order.

That scene when Alicent is holding the knife to Rhaynera’s face is honestly 10/10 - the dialogue is crazy good. ‘Now they see you as you are’ - chills

Did they ever confirm if Rhinoceros knew that her husband (not even gonna try his name), was sent away? Or did she want him dead but his boyfriend wouldn’t do it? Also, Aemond always hit back or didn’t escalate it until the other kids did. He didn’t hit until the girl did, and he had a chance to use the rock like three times and didn’t swing it until little dude drew a knife.

Aemon : "I lost an eye, but I won a dragon" Otto: "Thats my boy"

Loved this episode when Alicent was holding the knife for that whole scene I was on the edge of my seat it was so well done

Such a wild-ass episode!! When Aemond said that Aegon was the one who told him, he saved Alicent with that quick thinking. Also smart of him to say it's a fair trade for an eye for a dragon and it's the biggest dragon. Otto had a little smirk on his face after he said that. I'm so glad this is airing at the same time as Rings of Power because this show gets the bad taste out of my mouth. 10/10 episode, imo I can't wait for the dance to kick off finally. Thank God George RR Martin is more involved and has more influence with House of the Dragon than he did with GoT. It also helps George personally asked Ryan Condal to be the showrunner and to help write it since he was a fan of the books 20 yrs ago. More faith in them than D&D.

I'm surprised at how good this series is turning out to be.

Next episode is the last major timeskip, so Alex can finally shut up about it.

Viserys is a fascinating character. I don't get why people hate him so much. He's a better man than he is a king. Get used to it, we're seven episodes in 😂

You're missing the point in the scene with alicent and rhaenerys. The guards didn't do anything because they've never had an encounter of royalty vs royalty. Ser Criston says it perfectly we've never protected princes from princes. They've never experienced anything like what was going on.

Daemon was laughing because of the pettiness of the guy giving the eulogy. He kept talking about blood being pure to throw shade at rhaenyra for her sons being bastards.

Alex, they had a scene between Alicent and Otto where she admitted to being “desperate housewives”. Otto agreed, but said they’d work to temper her emotions and come out on top together. Alicent will be much more polished from here on, like you want

My favorite part of this episode was right after Alicent loses her entire mind, the whole room just looks around like "Well......bedtime" and it's also pretty cruel don't you think to corlys and rhaenys to leave them thinking that right after their daughter's funeral, their only son also "died"?

When alicent tells Cole to take the kids eye he refuses. He says something like "I am your protector my queen" in other words it's not his job to take the kids eye out.

Cole never tried to take the kid's eye, he was going to intercede for Alicent.

Boy AINT NO WAY I was gonna step in and touch either the Queen or the Crown Princess. For what? To lose my head? Its the Kingsguard commander told the others not to interfere. Guards were holding Cole back as well as Daemon.

Great episode imo. Slow burn for the first bit but the payoff was fantastic. Vhagar looks fantastic and I love the change/addition to the book at the end with Laenor.

Holy crap! Somebody got a happy ending on a GoT show! This is truly the end times. 🤣

I loved the episode but my only issue was them not showing how Otto got the position of the Hand back. That’s such an important conversation that needed to be shown, as the last time they spoke, Otto was basically accused of treason. Wish they give an extra scene or 5 minutes to show some of these moments and bridge things together. Other than that, loved it

This episode is so good, especially the part in the court after Aemon eyes got slashed, so intense.

I almost never ever feel alot of emotion about characters in tv shows but holy shit this episode was 10/10 and havent given a series episode that since Arcane. Complete episode and i have 0 things i didnt like. Wow!

So happy. AJ was hating this show before he saw it, but now he is craving it. Shows how strong the writing, acting and production is.

I have an oled tv and it was still too dark to see and looked like muddy shit.

Also, with Otto coming back and that not being explained, why didn’t we get a reaction from Raenyra at all? She’s the one that essentially got him fired. We don’t even see her upset over this or question it?

The best episode so far. Lool Otto and daemon just leaning back in separate corners during the conflict . 😂😂😂.

It's good I'm not the only one haha. I kept looking at my C1 OLED's brightness setting wondering why the picture was so unbelievably dark.

I like how Joe keeps reminding us of “Amazon billion dollar show”

Viserys isn’t a stupid man, he chooses to brush off issues that are going on because he’s trying to desperately hold together his family. All he cares about is his family and peace, confronting any of these issues tears apart his family so when he’s finally confronted with everything in front of everyone he shows he’s not weak, he’s willing to cut out anyone’s tongue that says his daughters children are bastards whilst staring alicent in her eyes. He’s dying he just wants to hold his family together and make sure everyone’s okay before he dies, kinda reminds me of my friends dad that has cancer tbh

The reason why guards stood numb during situation with knife is because an actual active queen was at conflict with a heir to the throne, and they showed how people wanted to intervene but since nobody had clear upper hand in the balance of power and those guards (besides Criston) didn't pick side yet they just decided not to intervene at all. Whoever follows real politics (I unfortunately do) can see such "safe" behavior every time.

Very interesting episode with lots of talking points.

Watched on an OLED as well, the dragon cgi was actually pretty good from what I could see, not sure why they darkened it so bad to hide it

There were 7 dragons I. This episode, it was amazing there is so much subtext and drama even when characters don’t speak it’s so well done!😊

So, I totally agree with saying that the guard should have gotten more involved, but you guys raised a great point so I rewatched that scene out of curiosity and I only Now realized that the commander of the kingsguard (Ser Harrold) yelled "Hold your approach!" and actually told them to back off. Which was interesting. I'm guessing he did that to a) Keep Criston out of the picture and B) to prevent anyone from getting needlessly hurt (or worse) in a scuffle. Still agree, but interesting nuance.

I love the feeling of community this series is bringing to a awesome experience, good episode or bad.

*AEGON* *II:* *A* *Comedic* *F-Up* The more I watch all the Aegon II scenes, the more I'm LMAO! 🤣 Watch Alicent slap Aegon hard at the face and he's like, "What's that for?” Then Aemond blames him when it's really his mother who started those bastard rumors. It's like Aegon is Johnny Lawrence when Johnny was around the same age. He's all about chasing hot babes and getting drunk. Almost every scene Aegon is in seems hilarious whether it's unintentional or not. Like what did Aegon do this time so Alicent can start hitting and yelling at him? Alicent should be charged with child abuse. You don't see Rhaenyra laying hands on her children while Alicent is a deranged mother looking like she wants to strangle all her children. Aegon's greatest hits after two episodes... - He pranked Aemond and then lied. - He masturbates from a window. - He calls his brother a tw@t. - He feels indifferent about the throne. - He mocks his sister for being so weird. - He's into creatures with long legs. - He gets completely wasted in a funeral. - He seems to get scolded by his parents or grandpa all the time. Aegon is not harming anybody but is a total f-up. I'm starting to like him! Can you believe he is just second of the same name from Aegon the Conqueror? He's the typical horny teenager. Even his parents seem to know he's already an f-up from all the screaming towards his face! I know people be hating on Rhaenyra on some of her irresponsible crap she's done. But has Aegon showed any good qualities being a king? Hell no. He's the guy who gets high on cocaine and Ecstasy. Only thinks about getting laid. Jerks off to Pornhub at least 3 times per day. So basically like most males in their teens and 20s. He reminds me of myself and a bunch of other people I know. 🤣 A walking meme waiting to happen. I'm starting to love Aegon. Keep watching every little scene with him. He's quite a character. An on-screen gag. Rhaenyra's so-called challenge for the throne when he seems more mentally challenged like his siblings. And yet, the less destructive between him and the two insecure women who were former besties. *Aegon* *the* *Fapper* is NOT trying to kill anybody. He doesn't mind if his half older sis will have the throne. He seems to get along with Jace and Luke. He just wants to masturbate and get drunk. Let him, Alicent. Stop pushing your son to something he doesn't want. He's basically Jason Biggs from American Pie. He's no different than Tyrion. Brothels and wine. Harmless recreational activities. Nobody dies. Nobody gets raped. Aegon is just a squirrel 🐿️ trying to catch a nut.

Loved this episode! Honestly, I'm not sure why so many are complaining about the episode being too dark. I have a shitty monitor from 2008 and I had zero problems watching this episode.

I have an oled TV too and still had to turn up the brightness

Another Banger of an episode. Seriously, this show slaps...especially for book readers that know what's about to happen and how it confirms alot of theories.

I admit, I cracked up laughing at Luke who said, “I don’t want it.”😂😂 Anyways this was an amazing episode and I can’t wait to see more of Aemond!

If they keep this up for the three last episodes, this season may go down as one of the best first seasons in tv history. Hell, one of the best seasons of all time.

I strongly disagree with the analysis of the funeral. It wasn’t about the death. It was about the characters there. Watch THEM. It’s showing who’s backing who and who hates who without a single word.

I have no idea what Alex was complaining about in regards to the lighting. The entire episode looked fine to me.

People who can't see the dark scenes are probably on Limited RGB video setting, which is typical for TV. If you have Full RGB like on a computer monitor there's no problem.

You can see the stark difference between how Robert handled the same incident with the children fighting in GoT compared to how Viserys handled it here. Amazing.

I agree with alex, the dark filter throughout the episode was super noticeable and terrible. The writing is still really good but it was so obvious, like the skies are still bright and the shadows show its clearly still day outside, but they turn this filter up to 11. So dumb

I think I know exactly where they're going to end the season and it'll definitely be a killer cliffhanger

35:10 If they follow the GoT formula, they'll have the first major battle in the 2nd to the last episode, and the final episode will be the aftermath, with the final 15 minutes setting up the next season. Great show, so far.

It was too dark to see anything on my 4k OLED TV... had a similar experience with the wedding dinner episode.

I love it when Alex likes/loves something he still looks like he wants to die and shits all over it. Never change my man :)

I have an OLED and I had a hard time seeing it!

Interesting about the screen brightness. I watched on my old Panasonic plasma and had no problems seeing anything on screen. I did however notice that it was filmed using a day for night setup, which is never good. Amazing episode all the same. 🐲

The dance of the dragons is going to be insane!

The excess neck of big neck (Vhagar) is fantastic. I wonder how old the beast is? Also am I just forgetting? Joe is talking a lot of about what's in the book, I don't recall that in past reviews, and I wish he would not hint at what is ahead.

The Child acting in this show was top notch. these kids did a great job. usually, kids take me out of a scene with their terrible acting, but the scenes were very believable.

So far the Greens have Aegon - Sunfyre Helaena - Dreamfyre Aemmond - Vhagar The Blacks have Rhaenyra - Syrrax Daemon - Caraxes Luce - Arrax Jace - Vermax Baela - Moondancer Then there Is several unclaimed Dragons.

That's BS that people justify 4v1 gang beat like that. You're allowed to pick up a damn rock at that point and he was using it the threaten them. He could have clubbed that younger kid more than once with it and didn't. That's not justification for the tying to cut his throat and getting an eye instead. He was trying to get them to back down 4v1. The kid did nothing wrong. No punishment for jumping a kid in the middle of the night in a fight you started and cutting his eye out is the truly disturbing part.

One thing I really, reaaly like with that show, is that he doesn't waste my time. No useless scenes in slow motion to pad the runtime. No useless arc the may or may not lead somewhere, with people who may or may not be someone important in the lore. Everyone's motivations are known and understandable. Everythin is properly set up for the bloodbath that'll be in episode 9. It's really a joy to have a show that don't try to be mysterious and to subvert expectations. An dragons! Dragons are cool!

I loved this episode it was so damn incredible

I think you all viewed the Rhaenyra/Daemon situation a little different than it was intended. When she sleeps with him you see the serious look on her face which made me believe that she was manipulating the situation to protect herself and her kids. Sure, maybe she already liked him, but she knows her life is possibly in jeopardy so getting Daemon on her side helps her stay protected, and the easiest way to get that is to seduce him.

Why did no one address aemon stealing the dragon after his eye got slashed, and why didnt daemon have a reaction to loosing the best dragon? Surely Daemon who is so self serving would have a problem with this. Everyone seems to brush past it even though aemon mentions it to the queen that he lost an eye but gained a dragon infront of everyone.

As someone who hasn't read Dance of Dragons I find it very upsetting that you mention anything after what happens in this episode. Now I know the queen is going to go crazy, a ton of important characters dying, tons of dragons dying, among all the other things you've brought up in this video. I'm surprised I haven't seen any other comments mentioning this. Please stop doing this.

We can't say for sure Aemon was trying to kill with the rock. Dude was outnumbered so wisely gets a weapon to the fight. Was skillful of him, dudes like a kid. He's going to be tough....

When they say Demian instead of Daemon is like calling Tyrion Tyrone

Alex turning into a negative Nancy. Dialogue was fantastic. I agree they need to stop filming in the dark it’s my biggest pet peeve. This is for sure the best episode so far .

"What is this mortal life if not for legacy" gave me chills and explains alot in all of game of thrones 😂

i have a 12 year old 720p insignia, and the scene with aemond wasnt dark at all. i even noticed they added extra moonlight so we could still see. it was on the brink of being unrealistically lit but still looked great.

I've got a 12k oled TV. Best you can own as at 6mths ago. The screen was too dark to see. And the amount of black crush was ridiculous. So unless my streaming service provider was streaming a 600mb xvid file, something's amiss.

Guys Daemon was laughing because the of the Strong boys “thinning” the bloodline.

I thought this was the best episode yet, I was gasping at the whole episode from the dragon being taken on. Excellent television.

I'm with Alex, I even have an Oled TV and this episode looked like trash and it's obvios they just apply a stupid filter.

I love Vaserys in this show. I don’t think he’s dumb or inept, I just think he’s more of a father than a king, who wants more than anything for his family to get along and for peace. I think he’s wilfully ignorant for the happiness of his daughter and is just trying his best to keep everyone together until his day of death.

I'm usually an action junkie, but this series so far has had very little of it and it doesn't bother me in the slightest. The writing is so damn good as is the acting. This series deserves awards upon awards! It's just epic!

Watching the Nerdrotic episode review of HOTD EP7 and they hit the nail on the head when they said: " It was just a bunch of kids scrapping and it still had better choreography, more drama and emotional weight than anything I’ve seen from ROP."

I currently can't find any redeeming quality in Rhaenya. She's presented like the protagonist and I have seen many gravitate towards her but she seems to be self interested and pretty heartless. I can't think of a single noble thing she's done?

They clearly had to film when the tides where ideal because of the location (very flat beach) - so they had limited options with the lighting. But yeah, they could have brought the brightness up a little bit, we get it lol.

Near perfect episode, favorite of the season so far

Loved this episode! Lots of crazy stuff, im excited for more!

I legit thought my TV was busted.

I had a full Cersei moment when they did an “Eye for an Eye” moment like she did with the dire wolfs. Awesome episode & love these Review videos. ❤🤘

I loved Aemond bonding with Vhagar it was such a good moment 😏

The Rings of Power must be the best thing to happen to House of the Dragon right now

26:26 Aemond picked up the rock so that he could threaten them to back off. He wasn't determined to kill them, otherwise he wouldn't have paused for so long, he was just warning them.

I have an oled. that dark scene was almost unwatchable. it reminded me of Season 8 so that bothered me. but the rest of the episode was fantastic.

That child fight was off the charts intense