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'House of the Dragon' Is Full of Liars, Scammers, and Legends| Ad Free (Patreon)

Published:
2022-09-21 16:38:01
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Thank you to Joey for helping me edit this video <3


TW: Patriarchal bullshit, and Malcolm Tucker levels of foul language. 

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Previews only

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Team Blacks

Comments

Gabi

I love your thoughts, as always. I ultimately really do agree with your take on Criston, but I think I remain conflicted on their actual sex scene. Like, I keep coming back to it bc I don't think it was mutually playful -- I think it was playful on Rhaenyra's end, to be sure, but from the start that was not the case for him. He tried to leave, she closed the door on him. He told her to stop when she began to undress herself, and she ignored that, too. It felt and looked like something she enjoyed more than him, even if there's no question in my mind he had feelings for her -- the writers outright tell us he's carrying a torch for her. Ultimately, the f/m dynamic in a patriarchal world really cannot be ignored in this, and I think if they'd really wanted to shine light on the power dynamics here, we'd have *seen* Rhaenyra wielding hers with the Knightsguard and we didn't. But some of the reasonings I keep hearing (he would've walked away etc) leave me feeling some type of way. Because he did try, at least at first. And if the roles were reversed, even if it's not a perfect 1:1 scenario by any means, 'she would've walked away' would not feel great to me either. Does that make sense?

Princess Weekes
>>92081274

Hey, I totally understand what you are saying. I think that for all the intimacy training and coordinating that they have been bragging about the series doesn’t really understand how to deal with these issues. The reason I say that Cole could have left is that as I watched the scene it portrays them overall as equal. They are taking off their own clothes. They are giving Cole autonomy in his choices imo. And the reason I am so callous toward him is because of the larger context and his actions in the future. Him saying that Rhaenyra made him “her whore” scream of a lot of his own internalized shame. And embarrassment of not be important enough for Rhaenyra to run away with. And he is going to be actively trying to destroy her and her sons because he feels jilted by her and that to me just feels icky. He is much older and while he feels indebted to her —I would have felt different if she invoked her royal status when trying to seduce him than just playfully blocking the door. If she had used that against him then I would see the scene differently. As it is depicted it’s definitely has elements of grey, but imo not enough to make me read it as Cristion being taken advantage of. Yet as I said I do get why it reads so problematic

Gabi
>>92081274

I totally get what you're saying. For what it's worth, I don't actually like Criston, especially after the last episode lol. The construction of his character is one I completely agree with you on. The vibes were very loud, especially in 1.05, and there's no going back on it. I was mainly talking about the sex scene as a contained/isolated thing, and judging it on its own merits. In the greater context of the narrative, I really am with you. I guess I can give Criston that, if nothing else: he himself agrees that despite Rhaenyra initiating, it was his on him to put the breaks and he didn't. But I think you just pinpointed my mild frustration (and it is mild overall!), as I also agree that for all their talk about intimacy coordination and the female perspective, they have ways to go. In general, I'm curious to see how Criston even stays on the chessboard after this stunt. At least in the original source material, Joffrey's murder happened in a tourney and there's some plausible deniability. Here... I have no idea.

Zoe Alden

I really enjoyed this, especially the off-the-cuff style! ASoIF/GoT isn't really my ~thing~, but I do enjoy certain aspects and I'm always glad for other people's enjoyment of it. I definitely 'consume' ASoIF/GoT vicariously through creators I support, and I'm always glad to hear your thoughts! (There was this great article I read last month about the portrayal of disability in the GoT series which was just *chef's kiss*, which is more my speed. I'd be happy to send you a pdf if you're interested, it seems up your alley!) Re: makeup and hair, I'm honestly kind of impressed with how poorly they did. It seems to me, as someone who really enjoys this aspect of production, perhaps a similar situation to Netflix's adaptation of The Witcher, where they very obviously had too much work with too few people and/or too small of a budget. Idk, it's very strange and incongruous in comparison to GoT, but given the recent shenanigans at HBO's parent company I feel like it's plausible the studio could be pinching pennies. And yeah, it's unfortunately very predictable that hair & makeup had absolutely no clue how to style the BIPoC+ actors, which doesn't make it less-bad, but. (One of the things I love most about Martin's world are 1) dragons and 2) the Targaryens, literally only because dragons.) Re: burying their gays, I didn't even realize there was an explicitly queer relationship in the show, however briefly. I feel like that, as someone who doesn't watch the show but is in the circles of folks who do, not even realizing there was a queer romance is a big sign that HoD did their queer characters dirty. I wholeheartedly agree with your entire assessment of how they handled the queer rep, just as someone who doesn't watch the show themselves. The main thing that I'd heard about HoD so far was the violent c-section scene, and honestly I'm angrier about it now that I know how it went in the book. Bitch Media put out an article in 2011 regarding the depiction of violent births in film and TV back in 2011, and it's just as relevant today. [https://www.bitchmedia.org/post/bringing-up-baby-the-terrifying-transformational-birth-scene-showdown-twilight-v-game-of-throne] As someone who literally presented a paper at the International Medievalists' Congress this past year, I can't overemphasize how much I hate when production teams, or specific members thereof, use the oft-trodded out line about the importance of historical accuracy. It's a pretty well-acknowledged thing, at least in video games studies, that a story doesn't need to be faithful to the letter of historical accuracy so long as it *feels* accurate to the player/audience. I don't know if I've ever heard this cliche about historical accuracy outside of a justification of some shitty portrayal of an oppressed/marginalized group. It just says the quiet part out loud, about who is benefiting from the history being portrayed. (This especially grinds my gears wrt queerness; there are multiple English monarchs from the medieval and early modern periods who displayed behavior we would now recognize as queer. [https://bearworldmag.com/secret-history-gay-kings-queens-england/] To say nothing of Scottish, Welsh, and Irish monarchs, in addition to all those in the rest of Europe and the other five inhabited continents!) Idk, I have a lot of *Opinions* about how HBO's ASoIF adaptations just...so clearly demonstrate the current issues with media production, from still struggling to depict women as full people all the way to tokenized representations of characters from oppressed social groups. (Edit: added a link on queer English monarchs. Also, sorry this got so long!)

Samantha Rey

So I have not read the books, and from your description, I definitely would have liked to see more of Jeoffrey getting a dignified story before his death, especially how it could have been used to flesh out this budding partnership between Rhaenerya and Laenor (the friendship between the two in the preview for ep 6 looks very close) but I don't totally hate the death. It is disappointing and triggering to see a gay character die for the character development of a straight man, but it was contextually very impactful in making me understand Ser Criston as a POS (though only after the fact, it was poorly done and way too gratuitous for me to process as anything other than horror in the moment). The "You mean to make me your whore" scene was very reminiscent to me of Gregory Orlov's quote that by not marrying him, Catherine the great made to make him the "male Pompadour", and the toxic masculinity that being a lover of a powerful woman is somehow emasculating and inherently feminine somehow, even though Madam de Pompadour was actually incredibly powerful in her own right. So when he snapped because he's actually homophobe, it highlights that this man doesn't care about his honor, he just uses it as his limp dick defense for wanting power and control in the traditional knighthood sense. Idk, I'm not a writer, I'm just a watcher, there are probably better ways it could have been done without being so triggering, but I ultimately don't hate where it left the story in and of itself.

Emily Kugler

I love your shirt so much. 🌙

Linda Maleh

Ahhhh I forgot about that line in GOT about how Rhaenyra dies. Ugh why can't we just have our powerful messy queen??? Is that too much to ask! But I'm now thinking I definitely need to read Fire & Blood. The scene between Criston and Rhaenyra did feel off to me because we don't really get a lot of enthusiasm from him about being with her, and it's unclear whether he sleeps with her because he's really into her or because he feels like he has to do what she says. IMO a missed opportunity for the show to have a really hot scene. But also, isn't Criston Dornish? Since when are they so prudish? Still not sure why Alicent takes Rhaenyra's sexual transgressions so personally. It has nothing to do with her. I agree that her anxiety over the succession would've been enough motivation for her to work against Rhaenyra. This has gotten kind of rambley, but I loved this off the cuff style video!

Gesa K

Criston Cole really screams catholic guilt to me. After sleeping with his crush he can't reconcile this with his beliefs and instead of fighting this battle within himself he turns his anger and frustration against the woman he slept with.

shamaamamamamaah

I wonder if the reason why Alicent is so concerned with Rhaenyra's sex life is because she's envious.

cookiecrumbles

So disappointed in Sir Criston Cole. Shoulda played your position, my boy! Smh

Yoav Fine

Non related, but there have been multiple attempts to hack patron accounts recently. **So if anyone here hasn't activated the 2-factor authentication yet, then you really, REALLY should.** Also, apparently, Patreon fired their entire security staff so it's another reason to do that. I found out about this thru the hbomberguy patrons discord so I just thought I'd pass the info along.

Miranda

I also wish we could have had a more or even a full season with Milly Alcock and Emily Carey to get more character development of their relationship before it really falls out. I don't know much about actor contracts, but I wonder if it has something to do with locking down the two leads who are going to be in the majority of the series. They cast the younger versions in relation to the older ones, it would have been weird and inconvenient for those actors to have to wait a full extra year to start their roles, especially when they don't know how well the show is going to do. It's basically what they did with the "My Brilliant Friend" adaptation, which also switched out its two lead actresses after just a few episodes. I think it worked really well there, but the young versions in that case were little kids. The older, main actresses in MBF are the same age as the young ones in HOTD.

queerly beloved

love this review/analysis!!! :D i personally love book/show comparisons, it was cool hearing u talk about the changes and ur thoughts on them. thanks for making this and sharing it w/ us! :)