Yup… I spoke way too soon on all that

😂😂😂

🤣🤣💀

The Boy *IS* a Blackwood, the Man *Was* a Bracken 😂

@@NerdyNightly Fact!

Pretty much every war in Westeros, they are on opposite sides. Notably, Blackwood is one of the few southern houses to hold to the old gods and Bracken very firmly worship the Seven.

Did his descendant Bloodraven proud 👍

Not just any Blackwood, Ben Blackwood, we will see him again

Yeah, I think he does genuinely care about her. I believe that's part of the reason why he couldn't completely go through with it at the brothel. It became a lot harder to use her when she, actually, turned to stare him in the face. I think she, also, affects him more than he wants to admit and the moment was just starting to shift from him seducing her to her seducing him (and he refuses to give her that much power over him). It really feels like the intense drinking afterwards was his way of punishing himself for what went down with Rhaenyra (but, whether he was feeling guilty or just really angry at himself for not going further is ultimately unclear.)

I thinkt he Book makes it pretty clear that Daemon does truly love Rhaenyra and he also loves Viserys, which is why he hates Otto, becuase he knows Otto is manipulating Viserys and using him to get his own Bloodline to power. Daemon doesn't really want the throne as much as people make it out to be, he more so just wants recognition and attention, especially from Viserys as he's his older brother but you can tell from the way he has been interacting with Rhaenyrra throughout the show that he has a soft spot for her.

@@SwiftFoxProductions Looking through reaction videos to sate my unquenchable thirst for HOTD now that I gotta wait ~2 years for another dose and what do I find? A take on Daemon that I wholeheartedly agree with, from someone with a rather familiar username 😉 Daemon taking Rhaenyra out on a little "night on the town" is the main reason I love Episode 4 so much... and no, its not just because of Clare Kilner's noticeable "female gaze" directing making the brothel scene remarkably erotic in contrast to the trademark Thrones method of throwing tits in your face. With minimal dialogue, we get such an insight into Daemon's character with regard to his uhm... *complicated* relationship with Rhaenyra, especially so in the scene's "climax" when the non-verbal sparring match between the two starts firing on all cylinders - I also really appreciate its place in Rhaenyra's marriage/mother arc (I could go further into that but I'm not gonna subject you to too long an essay.) Daemon returned to King's Landing with a plan that boils down to him being an ass to achieve his own goals without much thought as to how the plan might affect Rhaenyra, something he had done before (e.g. stealing Baelon's egg to provoke Viserys, inadvertently hurting Rhaenyra too) except this one was different, now it entailed straight-up abusing her... However, Daemon's cunning plans rarely survive contact with Rhaenyra, and this time he made one crucial miscalculation: he failed to realize just how much she desired him. He takes her to the brothel, they start making out... then she reciprocates Daemon's advances so passionately that she's dangerously close to taking charge, which comes as a complete shock for Daemon. He tries to regain control of the situation by pushing her up against a wall, starting to slowly undress her, but she one-ups him by going for a handful of Rogue Prince cheeks in a *very* determined and aggressive manner. This is no longer a scenario where Rhaenyra is just a passive piece in Daemon's poorly-thought-out game; he has to both regain control to sate his ego and create distance to repress the guilt that is starting to set in, so he turns her around - maybe to pretend she is one of the silver-haired maidens Mysaria spoke of - but mere seconds later, she turns back around to face him, grabbing his shirt to pull him in towards her. She refuses to allow him to distance himself from the situation, and consequently he can no longer act as if abusing Rhaenyra, his niece that idolizes him above all others, isn't crucial to his plan; through the sheer intensity of her aura and body-language, Rhaenyra subconsciously repeats to Daemon what she said to him 4 years earlier on Dragonstone: _"I am _*_right here,_*_ uncle."_ He has lost, and all that is left is for him to admit defeat, but this is Daemon we're talking about... he would sooner die. He stops and pulls back a little with a faint smirk, almost as if try and tease her like he did with the Valyrian steel necklace after she showed her interest in it. This time, however, it is different; back then, the balance of power between them was ever so slightly tilted in his favour - she could not afford to reach for what she desired - but now the scales have been tipped almost entirely in hers. He is unable to withstand her intense gaze, breaking eye contact and pulling away further, but she grabs him by his shirt to pull him back in again, placing her other hand around his neck to use all her strength to make him submit, which he almost does, leading to a final strained kiss... As you said, Daemon refuses to let Rhaenyra have that much power over him, and so, he resorts to using his only available advantage: physical aggression, suddenly punching the wall to scare her into releasing him. After this, Daemon runs off to get completely black-out drunk, passing out in the street and needing to be rescued by Mysaria. I firmly believe this was him drowning his shame, guilt and regret in alcohol, having been overwhelmed by these emotions. He realized how much he actually cared for Rhaenyra, and that if they could truly have a future together, it being built on such overt abuse was the farthest from what he wanted. He refused to drink Mysaria's hangover-fixer elixir - almost as if he felt he deserved to be punished for his indulgences - before going to meet Viserys, where being sober might have helped him come up with compelling arguments that could have resulted in his initial plan being a success... instead, the ambitious, conniving and charismatic Daemon Targaryen is reduced to a hungover mess of a man, laying on the cold floor of the throne room, telling as pure a truth as someone like him is able to: _"I want Rhaenyra."_

Rhaneyra started out so good, but then it just dropped so hard overall, except for Viserys in ep 8. Even though this like medieval times, they should've done something more with Alicent and Rhaneyra relationship, beyond friendship, would've been much more interesting. And Rhanyera knowing what happened to her mom, but still choosing to be with Daemon and Criston, and later have so many kids, so stupid, and the 2nd half of this show just became a war for power, so sad.

I thought there was a moment he did!!

I also wonder if they only speak Valyrian. It would kind of make sense, less of a chance to be corrupted by the local populace if they can't communicate with them.

@@dustfan I think it's just like how here in the UK, we still even today have things done in Latin. My University graduation was all in Latin. Just pompous really. With Valyrian, it's still a language spoken by a huge part of the world in Essos, so the idea of it being something not many people speak doesn't really hold.

@@awesimo4684 Well High Valyrian is basically a dead language, similar to Latin. In Essos there are many dialects of Bastard Valyrian (I guess analogous to the Romance languages), some of which have evolved so much to the point where Daenerys (in the books) struggles to understand them. There are enough people who learn High Valyrian but no culture uses it as its first language.

Ohhhhh thanks yeah that makes sense now... maybe he was just doing it for political reasons and then he felt bad about it?

It‘s legal to marry your brother‘s daughter in Germany, UK, France, Norway, Sweden and many more countries. It‘s not incest at all

Considering what virtually the next scene was, they did not wait long.

Well, in the end that's true... He really loves his family.

Daemon is a kind of guy you can't hate but love. He's complicated, ambitious and at the same time, he cares the people he loves.

3 words. Nightmare In Silver :-) Definitely hints of his alter ego in Daemon.

Same here!

thanks y'all for sticking around!!

not to mention, emma was cast first

I didn't get it at 1st but I knew he's up to something like triggering some event that may affect in the future

I'm not so sure dany marrying Rhaegar would have prevented anything he still would have likely gone after lyanna regardless

To be fair, with the way Targaryens do their marriages, I think he's both her uncle and her cousin once removed (since her grandparents were siblings)

They're also technically cousins through her mom, but it was just a quote pulled from the video

This is the way

@@revan924 🤣

Based

Additional comment - this is the first GoT related episode directed by a woman since like season 4! And it shows! The female gaze in those sex scenes were on point. (Actually, this season already has twice as many female directors as GoT had as a whole. And also a bunch of female writers. Which I think is very neat)

@@TheRedLittleGirl Ahh thank you for watching out reactions, I'm so glad you're enjoying them!! I do love seeing more female directors, things have been on point thus far 🙌🏻

I agree with everything here! I do think that Cole obviously wanted it but was very conflicted given his vows. Could he have really said no? Maybe but he might have feared consequences, I think, which is the problem. I also loved the first part of Daemon showing Rhaenyra around the city, as I agree with him that it's important to know the people over which she will rule. And I think he cares for her too, but as you said he's also a very messy person and there were a lot of bad decisions all around. I appreciated the female gaze too, it really showed in the sex scenes, IMO, compared to past GOT sex scenes.

I'm crossing all my fingers for next week!

And its because of Rhaenyra.

I've also heard that they filmed the scenes with the older actresses before they filmed the scenes with the younger actresses. And I've heard through the grapevine also that Matt Smith had even better chemistry with the older princess actress! Which is...hard to believe as they have electric chemistry already....but yeah, things to look forward to after episode 5 which is when the big time jump will happen, apparently.

miles away from this

Very good! Actually , I know the show does not like doing that much high Valyrian , but when Viserys is alone with Daemon or Rhaenyra would love to see them speak in the mother tongue. In the books many of the nobility speak it , the Velaryons for sure.

Yep

You are correct. It was confirmed in the behind-the-scenes video

Quite the opposite, they said his impotence comes from his guilt “Ultimately, his impotence in this scene is a reflection of the fact that he knows deep down what he’s doing isn’t right.”

Idk maybe he just realized it was wrong and stopped.

I think the boy was working for 2 people: Otto and Mysaria. But Daemon definitely wanted to be seen

The thing that makes me think he had a plan here is when he took her cap off before they entered the pleasure house. He gave her the hat in the first place so that she wouldn't be recognized, and he takes it off then? Right before he starts making out with her in front of a whole bunch of people? It seems that he would know that that's a bad idea if he wasn't planning something there. Now he may not have planned all of it, but at the very least I think he planned to be seen getting hot and heavy with Rhaenyra in the pleasure house so that he could later request that he marry her.

@@samanthaa.6055 Or he's just too impulsive, the fact that he was seen actually fucked him up... He was exiled for that.

He definitely had a hand in the kid spy thing. Notice kid works for his prostitute, who in turn spies for Otto. The prostitute and Daemon are together so yeah. He wanted to get back at his brother and getting involved with the princess was his way to do it, even if he didnt go all the way.

if your insinuating about Daemon making Otto find out about Rhaenrya then I think your really reaching.

@@manvirshergill1739 That's exactly what he wanted. It's so obvious i don't know how people are missing it. Set scene: Rhaenrya refuses to chose a suitor after a tour of the kingdom where refuses and humiliates tons of suitors. (Continuing to make friends wherever she goes our dear Princess, i'm sure that all this will not bite her in the ass later when the hour of succession will finally arrive ). Ok, so next is Damon return where he starts great by making a entrance first to the both and then to the castle, after he gets her attention fakes a bit of distance but he is sure to suggest that she is to shelter and she should leave a little because she is missing out, what girl did not here that before :D. Then surprise hangouts he gets her tipsy, at least, he makes sure he uncovers her hair before he enters the "House of please", and finally moves to strike. He might not be able to go to the end with it but it matters not because he knows that once Rhaenrya was seen there he already one, since he has his friend to spread the rumor.

I heard Alicent will change at one point when she sees Rhyneria as a threat to her son.

I believe time jump is 10 years after ep. 5

Well don't worry, we're back Friday, and we're guesting on the Wheel Reads Tuesday night at 8:30 est if you want to catch that live!

I feel that very strongly this is the case as well. Yes, Daemon wants to be King, but as much as they care for one another, I don't think they really realized it until they started making out. The impotence thing is NOT in keeping with the book.

@@rhaenyralikesyoutube6289 I think the impotence issue is situational, like, when he feels conflicted about something during sex, his mind can't focus on the pleasure, so he can't maintain an erection. And unless they change what happens in the books, we know he can have children, and eventually does.

@@rhaenyralikesyoutube6289 that’s why I suspect it’s mostly a mental thing not a physical problem like either trauma or just being in his head, guilt, attraction etc.

@@MyUniqueVibe that’s how I feel about it as well

Males can understand that too though so I agree but it still may be a male

@@KagomeYasha023 the director credit for the episode was a female.

Thats truem thats why there was such a highlight on his armor

The skies were SO blue

Nah, he knew she was into him and that she has a bold character like he does, that didn't scared him off...Matt's performance, to me, showed he was unexpectedly overwhelmed with how much he felt when they were actually about to do it, and also a bit guilty for playing her when they always had that special thing and that's why he held back and left to get wasted. Though he has a dominant personality we've never seen and he never seemed like the kind of guy that needs that in the bedroom or else he can't enjoy it, I find him too self confident and genuine for that.

😂😂😂😂

No longer, it was made white by Criston Cole. IYKWIM 😏

.......what?

@@storyofm6820 They're suggesting that they'll retcon Season 8 as NOT the prophecy of the prince that was promised and the John Snow show will be. It's notable in the books that people throughout the ages and around the world interpret prophecies for their own benefit. (Seriously at this point in the book there's like six different characters being prophecized as the prince/Azor Asai.)

Been thinking the same thing. I had the thought that maybe that whole prequel thing with Naomi Watts being cancelled was a ruse and maybe there is a Night Queen in the North and we only saw a partial army in season 8.

@@alejandrodiosa1 hahaha

Except that you said enough to put that in people's heads and spoil it.

@@RabidDogma And you pretty much confirmed it as a spoiler... Oh well, shit happens.

Ahh thank you so much!