During the Argon II coronation scene, his dragon Sunfyre is present in the books. The whole reason the cronation is held in the dragon pit. Sunfyre is said to be the most beautiful dragon in the world and is very loyal to Aegon II. It would have made the scene much more belivable if Sunfyre had gotten in-between the Rhaenys and the Greens.

That scene with Rhaenys should not have been added whatsoever. If they wanted a eye catching scene following the books by having Aegon safely enter the coronation on top of his dragon Sunfrye would have been enough.

I 100% agree on the spectacle point with Rhaenys crashing the coronation. It was so out of left field and illogical that it genuinely left me baffled. Like, I thought it was a dream sequence haha

I do not agree with everything you've said. Rhaenyra is far from a victim in the circumstances she created. Not only is her show-counterpart made much more sympathetic to frame Alicent and the greens in a much less flattering light, but during my viewing of the show I could not help but be drawn to Alicent more over Rhaenerya. I feel she is entilted and always had Viserys clean up her messes and the scene where Aemond lost his eye perfectly encapsulated this: everything Otto impressed onto Alicent comes true in this scene. Rhaenyra can hurt Alicent's children; they can be maimed and Viserys will do NOTHING about it. It confirms her fear that she might lose her children to Rhaenerya's sword and in my opinion pushes her towards the decision to usurp the throne. Not to say the writing isn't inconsistent though because it very much is as they very much took away Alicent's more questionable character traits as well. In my opinion, the female characters should have been made much less likable than they were as the whole point of the Dance was that both sides were equally awful and their petty battles over succession came at the cost of the smallfolk.

Additionally ever notice the strong boys lost two father figures back to back and then proceeded to witness their mother be married to their uncle?

I like how you're blind to the fact that Rhaenyra is trying to have her bastards usurp the crown, but also driftmark. Just like Viserys!

This is a seriously impressive and comprehensive look into the season. The dynamic between the two female leads are especially well articulated.

Hope you guys enjoy this video! This Sunday, my DORORO video will also be uploaded. Exciting Times!

10:05 The child she lost at birth was a girl named Visenya

Agreed! The pacing throughout this whole season is what really made me fear for where the series is going. I hope they'll be able to improve the storytelling cause you hit the nail on the head there too. The story moves too fast for us to comprehend the consequences of characters' actions (or even understand who is who, and who is important to who and why). Cole straight up murders Joffrey at Rhaenyra’s wedding, and Alicent cuts Rhaenyra after Aemond loses his eye. But no consequences are even mentioned? That's one of the things that made GoT so good!! I will say the first time I watched season 1, I obviously sided with Rhaenyra and didn’t find anyone on the Greens side likeable. However, after a second watch, I see how Alicent is not given the same screen time to show her struggles. We mainly see that she's married to a man who she doesn’t love, her father is manipulative, and she bites her nails sometimes. Same with her children too. Viserys puts his children to the side for Rhaenyra and her sons, and the only person we see who harbors this and resents the blacks is Aemond. Even then, showing the relationships between them all as the children were older at the end of the season felt very rushed. I was not nearly as invested as I knew I could've been. I wish there was just more screen time all around to make choosing between the blacks or the greens feel more difficult.

Yea I was hoping the season would end with Viserys’s death. They should’ve developed Ser Harwin, Cole, Leana, & Alicent’s children more & their dragons. It was good but I don’t like how rushed it was but I agree it’s mostly great

Such a in-depth and illuminating analysis! I couldn’t agree more with all of your points and opinions. I’m hoping next season will find a way to make up for these pacing issues since we shouldn’t have anymore crazy time jumps!

Na, that's not true. First thing you do when you get into power in Monarchy or Dictatorship (as in Military regime) is dispel hope for replacement. Take away anyone who threatens your rule, in this case Allison.

I didn’t know you were gonna make a video about HotD and I can’t be more thankful you did. You really spoke with the truest of words on every matter. HotD has flaws and yet it managed to bring perfectly the magic and nature of A Song of Ice and and Fire books in a way Game of Thrones only did poorly from S1 through S4. Can’t wait for Season 2 to expand even more through Westeros and all the amazing events we’ll witness during the Dance of the Dragons (and hopefully a better pacing since there won’t be these kind of time skips). Brilliant video as usual 👏🏻

Ive come to the realization that they rushed through this first season far too quickly in a bid to get the audience to the Dragon Spectacle. I have alot of issues that couldve been resolved if they actually kept the entire first Season focused on the Younger cast member versions of Rhaenrya and Alicent,and then had season 2 introduce us to the Children that are now brought into this conflict. My main 2 issues come down to the writing watering down both Rhaenrya and Alicent's actions in this conflict with how 1. Them removing Rhaenrya from actually killing Laenor in order to marry Daemon removes a concrete line in the sand for the Greens to actually see her as not worthy of the Throne and removing alot of Criston Cole's POV into her more immature Nature and how she doesnt take her responsibilities or oaths seriously enough in his eyes and 2. Removing Alicent from being Aware of the Green Councils scheming to take the throne in the wake of Viserys's death. And i swear to god the biggest flaw no one talks about is the implementation of the White Walker Prophecy being tied to the Targeyeans. I cannot believe they brought that back after how badly we know it ends in Game of Thrones when it comes to the white walkers.

Even though I agree that the green-black feud is clearly one-sided, It still managed to see myself morally side with the Greens so perhaps the writers were more fair in their portrayal. Never read the book and lore though.

When all her grandchildren are murdered, when 1000s of others are killed. When her dragon is killed and right before she died I'm sure she will regret not having ending everything right there.

It's rare but I agree with pretty much all of the points you made in this video. Great analysis, keep it up 🔥

How does this not have more likes/views??? Amazing video!

The moment Alicent gave birth to her 1st son, she vied for his place on the throne knowing Daneyra’s sons were not next in line by blood!

I don't like Daemon.

I still believe Otto was right that first born son Aegon II was a threat for the appointed heir princess Rhaenera. Alicent had no choice but to survive and strike back.

Another amazing video, keep the good work

Yet another banger of an analysis! I love Turning these on to relax after my classes before I start some HW. Keep up the great work! Any hints regarding what your next vid is gonna be about??

Plz I want you to do a piece on Better Call Saul....plz make an analysis now that the breaking bad universe has come to an end with its final season seemed it slipped through everyone's radar a great show a masterpiece

Visery’s was an idiot. So many death could’ve been avoided if he didn’t do dumb things. He trusted anyone but his brother and put his daughter life on the line so often. Low-key a terrible King!🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

I don't think Rhaenys sparing the Greens was bad writing. It makes perfect sense. Sure, she is indifferent to the lives of the commoners present, but behind Alicent are Viscerys' children, her own nephews and niece. To an aristocrat, there's a world of difference lowborn and kin. She later tells Rhaenyra that it's not her war to start; if Rhaenys had killed Alicent and her children, Rhaenyra would also be losing a childhood friend, and her siblings, the children of her beloved father. Rhaenys felt like she had no right to take that away from Rhaenyra.

I appreciate you explaining how the "seeing a mother's love" reason for not burning the Greens is illogical (and a bit retrograde, imo). But did she have the right to declare war on the Targaryens as a Valaryon? Wouldn't that have been treason? I think informing Rhaenyra was her only legal choice.

I can’t agree more about Viserys being the best character. As much as characters like Otto are extremely entertaining, always playing for the throne, I wish more characters were motivated by more than just the power. Viserys watching the world change in his absence was incredibly sad. He never cared about his power, instead all he wanted was his family to reunite, and for his dream to be reality. In the world of GOT, it only caused him and his power to be manipulated further. I hope going forward we get more characters whose own desires and goals drive them towards the conflict, instead of characters who simply want power.

You underestimate the weight and ramifications of Rhenyra’s bastard children. Alicent could not marry her child to a bastard, it dishonored everything she knew to be right. Rhenyra killed her own claim when it became clear that an illegitimate child would be her successor. Further more, after the death of the king, Lords who were disgusted by this woman requiring they pledge fealty to her bastard successor, would use the king’s legitimate children as a standard to gather around and try to crown one of them. Every unpopular move would feed the appetite for rebellion. Alicent’s children would absolutely be in danger from Rhenyra and her supporters.

Just started reading fire and blood i cant wait to get to the greens and the blacks chapter

No it's bad writing that vhagar doesn't listen to aemond. The dragons are magically linked to their riders and are blood tied to targaryens. If they could disobey orders that easily they would be poor war weapons

8:52 yet rhenyera wanted aemond tortured in episode 7 to learn how he learned about her sons being bastards(the analogy she used is used a lot in game of thrones books to say torture this guy a staple of Daenerys vocabulary when son of harpies start attacking her army with her going as far as having common folks tortured to learn who was attacking unsullied

The only plausible reason I see for the ending scene of the e9 making sense is the royals care so little about the common folk killing a few thousand is a-ok. Still, and like you've mentioned, it leaves that disgusting GoT last season taste in my mouth

I've never gotten into game of thrones but the layers and layers of complex writing is very impressive!

New sub here! So good analysis! Especially the part about Criston Cole! The Actor is so good, what a waste!

This is utterly ridiculous. If it's great, then it's not flawed. I had told myself after the fiasco that was the last few seasons of Game of Thrones that I would never watch another GRR Martin adaptation again, but I made an exception. Statistically at least, I am above average intelligence, highly educated, and then all honesty after I watched season one I didn't understand what I had just watched. The characters run bleed into each other - sometimes to the point where it seemed impossible to know who was who. Flashbacks, flashforwards, and all sorts of other distractions, made it very difficult to understand this season. Even more difficult to care much about many of the characters, good or bad. So what did I do? I watched it again. And again, I found myself pausing incessantly, going to IMDb, figuring out who was who, and still struggling to care about many of them good or bad. The show is not horrible, it's better than most, I gave it a 6 on IMDb. My view with respect to the major problem of the season, is that it wasn't long enough. They simply crammed too much material into two few episodes, and it left lots of people utterly confused, and it's a shame, because a couple extra episodes perhaps could've alleviated or even eliminated this. I will watch the first couple episodes of season two, but if something doesn't change (hopefully, they've set up the story in the characters now) I'm done. I'm not letting this franchise do it to me again.

In the books, it was Otto who proposed the marriage between rhenyera and aegon not rhenyera. But then again, show is going out of its way to make greens look bad so that’s not surprising that they would change this to be someone from team black proposing this

Team Green bro💚

Is it just me or everyone except Paddy who plays Viserys(who was exceptional) and Rhys who plays Otto has given an average to best performance.... considering the depths of their characters.....despite bad pacing and Almost average acting I still enjoyed the premiere season but for people who are comparing it with GOT....I just wanna say in terms of acting writing character motivations unpredictability and perfect pacing GOT s01-s04 is a bona fide masterpiece of television s05 and s06 were also great in some moments though the pacing faultered and s07 was outright bad and s08 was disaster... I still think HOTD is good but could have been better

You were a GoT lover? And what happened? Hmm… Why couldn’t they do an entire season with younger actors???🤔 They didn’t know if it was going to kick off which is plain to see now… I was liking this up until towards the end 🤷‍♂️

Ya, there's one bad scene, but chill.

Totally agreed, too rushed

Yeah... not everyone rooted for Rhaenyra. She has shown that she is selfish, spoiled and a deceitful liar quite early. She also has no problem using her victimhood and cunning to get what she wants. Ain't rooting for her.

It forces the audience 2 c male homosexuality, while censoring heterosexual sex. F.B.I. "Bot" showrunners...🥴. It's bad "art".

In the book it's not a fact that the children are bastards it's rumors that most don't believe. Queen Alicent has brown hair in the show but the books don't say what color her hair is. The strong's they don't say what color their hair is. But they present it as just because they are not married the kids came out with brown hair. But since Alicent married the king and her children are true born the kids have the platinum blonde hair. Like how does your body know if you are married or not. It makes no sense. In the book it's written by Maesters from other Maesters accounts. And they are on the hightowers side . They definitely have a thing against Targaryens . So we're told to draw our own conclusions.

It’s not flawed, it’s BAD. Bland and boring characters, hardly a story, BAD acting, shitty CGI (the dragons were ugly) bad props and costumes (Rhaenyras crown looked like it was made of cheap plastic and one could see that they wore bad looking wigs). I hated nearly everything about it. Only thing I found cool was that High Valyrian was spoken a lot. And the actress that played young Rhaenyra didn’t fit at all. She looks weird and I couldn’t unsee her large front teeth because she was gawping all the time. Viserys and Alicent were BORING as HELL ugh. At the end of the season I even forgot to watch the latest episodes because all of it was so forgettable. The only halfway interesting character was the one eyed Aegon, but he hardly had screen time. Matt Smith was totally overrated and I could go on and on and on. Afterwards I immediately had to re-watch GOT again to get my system reset 😂

King Viserys is the Foundition. Knowledge and Wisdom.

😠😡🤬😠😡🤬

I find that you're waaay to willing to victimize Rhaenyra and Alicent in this review. The hatred that they pass onto their children is very much due to them. And Alicent is in no way of "pure heart" when she interjects at the Green Council. She is clearly planning to install her son on the throne before Rhaenyra finds out. The only non-corrupt justification she has is pretty much laughed at by everyone else during the episode.