In terms of visual storytelling it's so sad that Viserys holds Alicent down by the wrist in THAT scene the same way Aemma was being held down during the c-section.😢 I just love the different parallels between the various characters of HotD

Wow - Grey Waste Tim's definitely upped his glamour game...😉

the chat finally closed right as I was typing something! This was some challenging material but I think everyone handled it well and we all grew in our understanding of the book/show as well as learning about real life stuff. thanks to @Fey Fire for bringing so much good insight into the picture

FeyFire is such a fun guest!!! Wonderful stream for a fantastic episode. Hope the quality of the complexity continues into next season

57:00 It also fits with the conversation about "their opinions don't matter" - and Daemon being like, yeah they do. The implication is, if you want to do whatever you want, you have to make sure you get away with it. That you realise that there will be consequences and be okay with that.

I love these HOTD streams! It's like a continuation of the "Fire and Blood" book discussion. Great stream, great guest! ❤

Great episode for the show & the stream. Ms. FeyFire was a wonderful co-host. Enjoyed her perspective especially in this steamy episode. Very Glad you are feeling better @david lightbringer❤

Awesome stream! Thank you Fey Fire🔥

I missed the first part of the stream but it ended well! I hope to see a video/stream about the war in the Vale. Thanks for all this content!

Thank you for another great stream. Faye fire was a wonderful addition.

You two were fantastic!

Not that I necessarily believe Jace is Criston's son, but for the sake of absoluteness, Rhaenyra never answers him when he asks if Harwin is his father. It /could/ be that that is because it is really Criston, or at least that we the audience are supposed to wonder about it.

I think the rat on the bedpost represents how nasty it is of Otto to put his daughter in this situation.

I think for Daemon, who’s so very proTargaryn, he would’ve wanted to marry another Targ but there wasn’t one available for him. Yes, Rhaenyra was his niece, so weird for us, but of course he would want to marry her. It makes perfect sense that he married Laena once he couldn’t have Rhaenyra. He’s a dragon thru & thru.

Hey Dave, keep up the great work! I've been thinking of Dany and the curse Mirri Maz Durr gave her. As Dany, is paralleling as Nissa Nissa, she could also end up pregnant before being "sacrificed". When the next comet hits Westeros, the sun will rise in the west, the sea will dry, and mountains will blow in the wind, this will fulfill all of the criteria for Dany to become pregnant with Jon most likely (depending on how his resurrection goes).

Sacrifice to the algorithm gods ❄️🔥

Based on Emma D'Arcy and her description of how she has received Rhaenyra, I don't think RT wanted to be Westeros' first ruling queen... I think she wanted to be Westeros' first woman king. Kinda parallel to Cersei and her (true) belief that if she were male, she would face a lot less pushback from society. Think Emma'd said she received RT as struggling with her gender identity, and if she views the throne as a font of authority in its own right, regardless of the sex/gender of whose arse is on it, it makes sense to me that she would not internalise her desire for the throne as a desire to be queen, but to be King (if only because King is the title of the one whose arse warms the throne). Also, queen etymologises as "wife", and if i say so myself, I think that buttresses my point.

Missed the stream, but I'm really enjoying these breakdowns during the long wait.

Y’all vibe so well! Such a pleasure to watch

Great stream, thanks for your content! Off topic question, but is there a video addressing “the Sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler”? Best I can figure is it is indicating the issue of parentage as it’s pretty central to the story or maybe a clue about hybridization. Seems like the sort of thing you’d do a good deep dive into.

Me, watching every reaction, every review, every analysis of this episode: "WHY are we letting it slide that Alicent is talking condescendingly about 'Targaryen customs' when her father proposed siblingcest years ago!?!?!?" Any discussion of that practice is moot because the Greens still found a way to justify marrying siblings when it served their desire to consolidate power.

Great episode. Really enjoyed it. Thank you David and FeyFire.

Thanks for a great one!

Hello @david, I was wondering if you ever did a show off of all your SOIAF artifacts? I would really like to see them! Thx, BTW Love the content and the way of thinking you are teaching me

One thing I do not think should be discounted: Rhaenyra and Alicent are young!!! They are learning and experiencing things for the first time. They will feel passionate and emotional regarding certain situations at certain moments. And everything they do or don't do is scrutinitized and analyzed, far more than the average person. There must be an impact on their psyches as they mature under demanding and stressful circumstances. People know the world they were born into. They must choose an attitude and endure their current life stage. And cognitive dissonance is strong here! Ex: Alicent needs to make sense of the role she plays and what her life entails, and I believe it personally bothers her about Rhaenyra (& her feelings coincide with the generally accepted view of what is expected of a chaste princess) that Rhaenyra can act with less regard and purportedly sneak around, give into desires, and seemingly not have any shame for what it does for her repute. While Alicent has humbly done what was expected of her, Rhaenyra 'gets away' with being her own person and making her own selfish decisions. This is unfair, disrespectful to their house and future prospects, and also hurtful (because no one wants to be played the fool, and Alicent feels* like a fool). I believe this is just one factor in what gives Alicent more resolve in her duty to bear royal children and see to their futures, stick to rules/her religious faith, and deem Rhaenyra as an enemy, while Alicent herself is doing right/good/purposeful work.

Night gathers and my watch begins

Huge fan of these episode reviews! Keep up the great work!

I agree with Fey Fire: 1) Harwin Strong is Fine! 2) Let's see some chest hair

Loving the rewatch review video/streams! The hype is growing for season 2

Thing thing about the scene where Viserys was having his way with Alicent as she is disassociating beneath him (as David so astutely pointed out), is that at one point, Viserys takes her hand and holds it, and this one act unfortunately brings Alicent back to reality…😞 Also, she is picking at her nails in this scene, which is just gut wrenching… About Alicent saying that she thinks it’s rather romantic… that might be what she has to tell herself in order to just get through that aspect of her marriage to Viserys. (Edit: I made this comment before finishing the entire video.) 😬

The frescos remind me of the erotic temple carvings in India.

Great stream

I believe this is the night that Aemond one eye was consieved

Another take: Alicent felt safe and seen when she was with Rhaenyra at times and envious at other times. For their age it could’ve been an obsession or borderline in some way because with the envy comes the shame and with the envy and admiration and teenage hormones it’s not far off to think she was in some ways attracted to Rhaenyra and that’s why the betrayal hurt so badly. We see the same (if not amplified) hurt and angry feelings from Criston Cole and we see another clue when Alicent says something along the lines of ‘duty is trampled under your pretty foot once again’ and that’s the disdain that might’ve once been the attraction. Disdain towards Rhaenyra and shame from Alicent herself once being spun in that web of emotions towards Rhaenyra long ago.

1:10:11 Egyptian mythology

Sad that these streams area always starting at midnight my time, so I always watch it the next day after work instead. A Europe-friendly stream once in a while is always appreciated! (long comment with my thoughts to some points ahead lol) It also feels - again - like Viserys didn't really prepare Rhae enough for the tour, as well. Like, she's 18 and doesn't take it as serious as she should but she does take her being the heir seriously (at least that's the impression you get) so if he'd have taught her that she should have used this as an opportunity to network, she would have understood that it's not just a "husband-pagent". Tbh about Viserys and Alicent...the fact that he doesn't treat Alicent right, nor romances her, it just proves to me how entitled men in that society generally are (I strongly felt the parallel to Rhaes paegent with all the lords here, as well), and shows a parallel to him and Emma: his "potential son" was more important to him than the "love of his life". In light of that, it's definitely unrealistic to expect Viserys to be a good husband to Alicent, who he doesn't love. "The truth doesn't matter, the perception does" -> this is why i think Daemon actually wanted to use this perception thing to get the rumors started about Rhae and him having sex (making sure they were seen, etc), but then he notices that he actually likes her "too much" and is in too deep so he rips himself away before he can actually act on his desire, and leaves her alone in the brothel. Doesn't matter if he went through with it, anyways, so he asks Viserys to marry Rhae and it all goes as planned up until that point (with the exception that he didn't plan on losing control with Rhae). Viserys protecting Rhae against Otto was a really good political move. He can give Rhae the moon tea and tell her off and all of that- in private. But anyone outside the immediate family shouldn't ever have any doubts of him standing behind her, that is one of the stronger political decisions Viserys does thorough the whole show, he always stands behind Rhae and supports her in the open, no matter what happens behind closed doors. That's how he should have been in other areas, too. I actually didn't feel like Rhae was full out blatantly lying but more like....choosing to omit the truth. "Damon didn't touch me" was meant to be the answer to the question whether or not they had sex, and they didn't, so technically she didn't lie about that. She didn't mention Cole which is an omission of the truth. And I agree with you all, Alicent def. was jealous in some way or another (probably of Rhae having the "power" or the boldness to do this kind of risky thing). You do mention the whole "who cares what the lords thing" about Rhae and Viserys covering up the paternity issue but...I kinda doubt there would have been a paternity issue if Daemon and Rhae had wed since they were so into each other that they'd probably made loads of Targ babies lol. And I agree, the whole sending Daemon away just weakened the house further, again. The whole Viserys saying Daemon and Rhae are so alike "they share the blood of the dragons, restless and chaotic" and STILL not seeing the sense in marrying them to each other is kind of weird af. I love how open-ended the whole moon tea thing is, was it the Hightowers, was it Viserys? Does she drink it or not? In her position i would have waited for the attendants to leave, took a few sips just to be sure, but not enough for it to be noticeable that I drank any of it lol.

Thank you for answering my first superchat LML!! Future Squishier in the making 2:10:20 thank so you so much you are one of my favorite channels!!!

Ok..this was epic

Love it! David, is there a link to Fae's channel?

👍

🎉🎉🎉

I think chat brings up excellent points on the Rhaenyra/Criston scene. One no is enough. It's simple - consent is given enthusiastically or it's not consent.

Mister Lightbringer, I really appreciate your work. You are getting too stressed with the A.I. thing. I'm no more of a purist than you, but I felt just as disappointed when I discovered that most illustrators retouched their work digitally and I immediately discarded them. Now, just because of your work I enjoy them a lot! video kill the radio star, the microwave did not replace haute cuisine nor the radio replaced live music. We have no control over those things, AIs are just a curious novelty. Obviously no one is going to be passionate about an AI image in the same way as a manufactured image, just as a photoshopped drawing is worth shit next to a painting by Titian. The only aesthetic rule that will live forever is "it don't mean a thing if it aint got that swing." I think that the i.a images could be observed as very interesting artifacts, if you give them a look... the last exotic and colorful fruit of this very fertile world. I would love for you to make a program just dedicated to AI images, because if what is dead may never die, what does an AI create? I think the answer to these dilemmas is fly or die and I.D.M.T.I.I.A.G.S naturally... the nature of the A.I. is related to that of xenomorphs and to that of omens in coffee foam.

37:55

Where is @downtownclownybrown 's classic "comment"? 😂

Not that I disagree with the flack Viserys gets regarding his relationship w/ Alicent and summoning her to his bedchamber late at night *but* to be fair, Viserys is under the impression that Alicent genuinely wants him. He doesn’t know (bc he’s naive) that Alicent was getting close to him because Otto ordered her. So although I pity Alicent I can’t exactly villainize Viserys because he is unaware of the truth.

To be honest, I am personally not that interested in these kinds of review videos. I'll still let them run when I fall asleep to help out with the algorithm, but still.

i have the theory fever ¿what shall i do? you give it to me! Lanisport is the port of the ashes, cercei is there... from here a roar so loud that is the last roar ¿are these pots of... i cant see so well... lannisters are done, but their ashes are not done yet dany arrives from the west with eurons fleet at lannisport. princes shereen survives the fire, she and dany will be like dragon sisters. i am seen more, George have seen it too, dave... he is alarmed... you see: time have turn the Donald in an arquetipe Lanister nissa nissa character, and that is heavy. George says ¿what is going on? i dont want this, take it back! here is our tragedy: now i am the prince of the profets and i see the signs everywhere, george martin thinks, now i can see whatever i want. but, in his own vissions he know that the boy who think like this will fall so so hard... and then george think, maybe if i stay quiet? No. he have submit, he will sing like a bird, as the dragon sings once more to awake the ashes

Pretty sure even a grown woman seriously saying "Stop." and meaning it, and then wordlessly and reluctantly giving in to her boss undressing her without giving a damn about her boundaries, and only later getting into it because she does kind of like him, would both reasonably be considered coercion and could easily legally be ruled as sexual assault today. Seems to me that the reason it's not sexual abuse is entirely because Cole is a man and men have way more power to physically reject a woman than vice versa, it's not because Rhaenyra isn't being coercive and using her power to pressure him. I love your work, guys, but that was a seriously cringy and sexist take.

It's great to see FeyFire, she has great analyses for lots of shows, I've been following her since Brittannia 😊 Dave, thanks for reminding people (esp young men) about respect and honor 🤍