A Song Of Ice And Fire

(For the last time in 2024) Things I liked / Random Observations

• This was a bizarre finale.
  • Game of Thrones used this clever formula of having a great/impactful/explosive penultimate episode and then the finale episode as a palette cleanser and next season setup. This felt more like the latter without the former, and it hurt it.
  • I wouldn't call it a letdown, but I can see how the rumors about this being changed from a 10 episode season hurt.
  • Season 3 has the potential to be the best ASOIAF television event - this is a great setup for it.
  • On a more darker take - I can totally criticize this as a 70 minute trailer for season 3
  • I feel like the story was just split between S2 and S3... so did we just get A-Feast-For-Crows/A-Dance-With-Dragons'ed ?
• I didn't expect Otto to be imprisoned.
  • I think there's something wrong about Otto being imprisoned - specially with what happens to Otto in F&B.
• This episode had GoT S8 teleporting going on:
  • Rhaenyra: Fly to Harrenhal and back.
  • Alicent: From the Kingswood to King's Landing and then Dragonstone.
• Alys is now intimately tied to the (future) lore of the series... lets count the easter eggs in that vision
  • Brinden Rivers (could this be an cameo from the actor playing him in D&E?)
  • The Others/Whitewalkers (just the whitewalkers or the GoT Night's King?)
  • A possible vision of the extinction of the dragons?
  • I'm shocked we got a Daenerys cameo.
  • Kinda related... what the hell was that thing in the godswood ?!?!?!?
    • I re-watched with subtitles on: antlered human 😱
• A dragon with striking cobalt blue coloring leading a Hightower host. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Prince Daeron Targaryen & Tessarion!
• I am pretty sure that the ending montage had all the leitmofifs of the great houses. Somehow it didn't stick with me?
• The Rhaenyra/Alicent meeting felt like the Sept scene didn't occur ? Is it just me, or did it felt like they were meeting for the first time in the season ?
  • I'm sorry, but having Alicent being OK with "a son for a son" as a setup for the fall of King's Landing is fine? did Prince Jaehaerys didn't count?

Going back to the antlered human in the godswood... I would have preferred an antlered being as a vision from a certain event in ASOIAF:

In a vast river stood a monstrous figure, antlers crowning its massive, muscled form. Shadows deepened as it loomed over a horse-sized black dragon, whose obsidian scales glistened in the dying light. The antlered being roared, eyes aflame with defiance, but the dragon matched it in relentlessness. With a bone-shaking bellow, the giant struck, its immense strength driving into the dragon’s chest. Blood mingled with the river’s waters as the dragon’s life ebbed away, sinking into the depths

It was an odd episode. I was enjoying it much as I'd enjoyed all season but it needed an event, a climax.

I think the shot of Aemond atop Vhagar outside of Shark Point was a complete underselling of what he had done. In the moment I wasn't sure if that was what he had done, or one of the new dragon riders. Was it somewhere important? I didn't know until Jace told Ulf. Should have been a sequence, and I'd have replaced last week's joyride if money was the issue.

Seems like they felt the sowing last week was their "Episode 9" moment, and this was the "positioning for next season" episode, but with only 8 episodes I don't think it worked. At least let Rhena...

So was Alicent privy to what’s his face’s plan for Aegon?

This whole season could've been boiled down to Rooks Rest and the Dragonseeds, and that's it. Daemon's Harenhal Acid Trip was B story filler.

85% of this entire second season was filler. Rooks Rest was the dragon fight we've been waiting for, but everything else was taking advantage of a captive audience, fluffing out 8 episodes, while teasing a season 3, which I wouldn't be isn't also going to be filler teasing out a season 4.

This is all so cynical and upsetting.

S2E8 analysis/reaction videos:

• Emergency Awesome - full breakdown and easter eggs
• Sean TankTop - bar scene reactions
• I'm not seeing an explanation video from Alt-Shift-X yet, so I'll just leave a link to their HotD playlist instead, which includes their S2E8 live Q&A discussion (4 hours) and will include their analysis video if and when they post one

For a season that was primarily about characters wavering and not making decisions, this season sure wavered and didn't make a lot of decisions. Really riveting TV.

My thoughts on the finale

Episode looked more mid season filler, before the action starts.