frozen Fire

[asoiafmusings]

s3 finale thots

Overall a solid season, lots of stuff I loved and I’m obv inclined to read it all charitably given the mountains of bad-faith Vitriol online but there were some choices that left me scratching my head, not necessarily in a bad way, but I think this season the seams are showing a bit more for me than they were for the last two. It’s fully down to the season-shortening and the effects that has had on the pacing tho

First thought during the intro was awww no larys this ep : ( im sure he’ll pop up in KL early next season and start scheming with Mysaria to overthrow Rhaenyra

Speaking of Mysaria, Rhaenyra did her so dirty!!!! It makes a lot of sense though as she seems to have fully converted to daemon’s school of thought after Aegon’s “resurrection.” I especially loved the little moments Mysaria had with elinda massey (who I think was part of her spy network?) and poor poor helaena. She’s trying to be a friend to her and she doesn’t realize she’s basically setting Helaena’s suicide plan in stone 😭

Rhaenyra weeping that viserys is responsible for all of this…. Yes dragon show don’t let that man off the hook, idc if he was a kindly lego loving barbecue dad. It’s compelling tho that he is primarily remembered as a beloved figure whose well-intentioned ignorance and inaction has nonetheless doomed pretty much every other character in the story

In general Rhaenyra’s descent into paranoia and ruthlessness has been really well done and a highlight of the season. What she puts helaena through is stomach churning, she’s cruel as hell to baela, the dead-eyed prophecy talk she gives little Joffrey is haunting, the full fascist crashout address she gives the smallfolk at the sept is terrifying. Emma Darcy is GOATed. And their new Joan of Arc armor was gorgeous

Speaking of the sept, Alyn goddamn murdering the high septon in the sept itself is Not a turn I expected! But his cannily playing along with Rhaenyra’s increasing warcrimeyness while the jury is still out on corlys is an interesting dimension for a mostly Heroic character from F&B. I like that this is setting up some conflict between him and the more straightforwardly Good Addam as well, which will probably tie into Rhaenyra turning Hard against her dragonriders if Alyn is suddenly her most loyal servant and her Holy Symbol Addam starts questioning her

Fascinating little glance between Manderly and Orwyle when Rhaenyra starts talking about the prophecy and the Others. I feel like they’d each be in a position to kinda know a bit about what she’s saying, Manderly being from the north and Orwyle being from the citadel, but more likely than that it was probably an unspoken agreement that Rhaenyra is Out To Lunch

Loved the alys lore. Penitent Aemond is another pretty surprising bit of characterization this season; in F&B he comes across as the Most Evil but without vhagar (still MIA! My money is she’s been nesting on the isle of faces with help from alys but she might well just be flyin around) aemond seems pretty haunted by the person he’s been. The scene with Aegon and aemond was another surprise for me but im very intrigued to see where both go next season, like a trip to Tumbleton to talk to Daeron could be very rich territory. I’m just hoping the circumstances of the gods eye don’t change toooo much. Same with Aegon surprising Rhaenyra on Dragonstone.

Tom Glynn carney is so good lmao. “I’m aliiive! No no no no NO im supposed to enjoy this, what’s wrong with you?!!”

Daemon being on the business end of a dragon attack for the first time and getting shell shocked is a great, unexpected turn. I wonder if this will play into his disillusionment with Rhaenyra and with life in general next season.

I love how the show gets across that for all his old man badassery and aura farming, Roderick Dustin is just kind of a bloodthirsty monster at the end of the day, like his motivations aren’t all that different from the “badly” killed Cole’s, looking for a glorious death no matter the cost. Still darkly satisfying to see him put an end to Ormund, even if I agree with some folks on here that the weird homoeroticism of it all was maybe miscalculated

RIP Ormund tho, maybe the most entertaining heel the show has ever had. Fleshing his nothing character out for a nice neat one-season baddie to be played by a vet like James Norton was such a smart move. He never felt like an assembly of quirks either, which I feared might have been the case at first what with his poppers and sensitive nose. Nope, just a really vividly realized and thematically resonant antagonist. He will be missed!

Love Gwayne’s ascendancy to Major Player status in the back half of the season. He’s basically taken over Cole’s role in the narrative as Man Broken By Dragon War, but his really tender relationship with Daeron helps differentiate him. I’m sad he probably won’t ever see Alicent again :(

Speaking of poor young Daeron, I can’t imagine he’s dead. He could very well disappear from the narrative entirely, given the ambiguity of his fate in F&B. corlys’s idea of wedding him to Rhaena is interesting and makes me wonder about the theory that Daeron will actually survive the war and live out the rest of his days under the assumed identity of like, a cadet-branch Hightower, Garmund perhaps?

Ulf is a great character whose arc in this episode and this season worked perfectly for me. A guy who has never had any agency or ownership over his own life or body beyond getting wasted at taverns, gets granted demigodhood that ascends him to the corridors of the powerful, who continue to push him around and deny him any agency. Makes sense why he’d lay waste to both sides the way he did!

I wish Hugh Hammer worked nearly as well for me. To this point his story has just been kind of bland, and the writing (or UnderWriting) of his predictably fridged wife Kat has been indefensibly generic. “I want to become the most powerful man in the world for you, Kat!” “I don’t want that power, Hugh! You’re doing it all for yourself!” Like it’s just the warmed over blueprint for so many prestige antiheroes, I couldn’t tell you the first thing about Hugh or Kat as People. It’s a shame because I really loved the sequence of Hugh claiming vermithor in s2 and his backstory as one of Saera’s kids. he also still hasn’t even officially done his Treason so im curious how that plays out

I need to pore over Helaena’s tapestry so bad….

I wish we’d gotten more alicent this ep either at harrenhal or on the road, even if the butterflies (condal you Madman) were a very elegantly sad touch

anyway that’s it for a very solid season! Please hbo give them 10 eps again for s4 im begging you🙏 praying to the seven for aid

[asoiafmusings]

S3e7 thots

a little cooler on this one! still a very good episode with a lot of great individual scenes but i do think as we get into the final stretch of the season we’ve been seeing a lot of the negative ripple effects of cutting 2 eps last season on the overall macro-storytelling. like I can’t believe next week is the finale!!!

Rhaenyra trying to bond w her sister for 45 seconds before aggressively full tilting into “Tell Me I’m The Chosen One” 😭 poor poor helaena

“When I was a girl I wanted to fly…” of all the characters I thought might get that Euron line, helaena was the last one I expected! But i really love the implication that the dragons make her visions even more powerful and overwhelming. maybe rhaenyra will attempt to exploit this….

Helaena’s dreams. you Never like to see a pale mare. Dreamfyre is GORGEOUS and it’s fascinating that Helaena envisions herself ON her dragon during the storming of the pit, especially if the show uses her death as an inciting incident for the Riots as in F&B. but overall I still feel like they could get a lot weirder with her visions. Especially the generic “winter is coming” one

speaking of sequences i wish were a little weirder, i enjoyed the harrenhal stuff but man do i wish alicent could have had a couple hallucinations. About her kids, about Rhaenyra, about Otto, Cole, anything! even if i get that aemond is alys’ special project right now

the incest vision was great and it’s so funny to double down on this particular strain of dream sequence after every viewer last season was like “ewww daemon wants to fuck his mommy why are we spending time on this??” I also find it powerful that alicent in the vision is more honest and vulnerable than she’s ever been with aemond, talking about how she’s failed and how she was too young to be a mother even as aemond tries to console her and convince her otherwise. and then alys’s ambiguous reaction (“what have you seen?”) was fascinating; is she actually the one putting these visions in daemon & aemond’s heads or does the castle itself bring their demons into broad daylight?

loved the detail of aemond’s vision of alicent not coming to pass irl but kinda echoing into reality with her repeating “you’re all I have left” and this visibly unnerving aemond

aemond confessing to alicent he tried to kill aegon and her basically responding the same way as when aegon asked her if she loved him in season 1… both times she was just like “oh my sweet idiot boy.”

also a quietly very upsetting detail is that aemond as a kid would be drinking spiced wine to sleep on the regular??? combined with him drinking milk of the poppy at the brothel I like the subtle characterization of aemond as dependent on substances. wonder if we’ll see him sipping on some weirwood paste

alicent going through with the plan to kill aemond has me even more certain now that she will be the one to poison aegon, or at least the catalyst of that plan. i still think larys will be involved though, as aegon and alicent are his strongest ties in the story

speaking of larys and aegon, larry and gwayne need to join a support group for people with suicidal boyfriends :(

unless he loops back around and regroups with aegon on the road i have to imagine larys will head to KL now and start sowing seeds for the riots? since Ormund is not long for this world, I could very much see larys either picking up the pieces of his spy network OR, since it’s far more likely for larys to have had an established network in KL already, maybe it’ll be revealed that he volunteered them to ormund’s service in the first place? that feels like something he would already have done in the background, a la leaving Otto in the dungeons for daemon and Rhaenyra. Idk, tbh I’m hoping for Something along those lines for Larys bc much as I’ve loved his bickering on the road with aegon, I’m really eager for him to do some scheming again

also every time larys says something like “seven blessings your grace” my “larys is a greenseer and skinchanging rats” theory loving heart feels a twinge of pain :( only half joking

again, I’ve loved the road trip but the plotting has been a little clunky. Rook’s Rest of all places having this like narrative gravitational pull that the characters can’t escape is weird, like that’s a Harrenhal trait. even if i understand why it’s resonant for RR to have this kind of effect in aegon’s arc specifically

the sunfyre scene was glorious, i love that his injuries match Aegon’s. and TGC’s maniacal laughter was so beautiful. i love the sort of “theon reclaiming his name” redemptive triumphant vibes for a character we know will go on to do mostly heinous shit, feels VERY grrm

also a very funny little detail that Tyland has a pirate sword now lol. curious to see how and when Rhaenyra gets her hands on him and how much of the ensuing Horror gets shown on screen. It’s crazy that he was walking around rook’s rest just straight up telling people he’s a Lannister

I really like all three actors and characters but I don’t really feel anything about the burgeoning love triangle between baela and the Hull Bros. I think that will change if we simply spend more time with them. And it’s a very interesting setup given that Addam dies and Alyn ends up with baela

I truly thought that might be the end for poor old sheepstealer. that horrifying four way dragon fight just goes to show how fucking devastating the storming of the Dragonpit is going to be next season

Also very surprised that Rhaena is back in KL! I do wonder how things organically move from here to Mysaria convincing Rhaenyra to call for rhaenettles’s head daemon letting Rhaena go free and then resolving to do the coolest murder suicide ever above the gods eye. Like maybe it’ll proceed as in the book, they’ll leave KL and hunt for vhagar together, inciting Rhaenyra’s Wrath and then Rhaenyra and mysaria’s word will reach them at Maidenpool, or maybe the writers will cut the Maidenpool stuff entirely and just have daemon have Rhaena escape directly from KL? maybe she won’t see sheepstealer again at all? idk but the Maidenpool sequence is one of my favorites from F&B so i kinda hope they keep it especially since they keep talkin about the mootons this ep AND how strongly they’ve laid the groundwork for “a queen’s word, a whore’s work.” and given just how many times rhaenyra has expected a loved one to sacrifice their child to her, it just feels perfect for that to be what fully disillusions daemon

on that note, i love Rhaenyra constantly telling alicent and daemon that they insist on Misjudging Her, what do they think she is?? Some kind of monster, that she would murder Rhaena or Helaena’s baby? this is the exact kinda deflection viserys would do all the time when Rhaenyra and others would call him on the very fraught succession crisis he fostered

Matt smith is really great. His bouts of sudden softness and self-critique about how he’s failed Rhaena as a father could very easily feel forced and out of character but he sells it perfectly

i really hope sylvi the madam is some kind of player in the Moon of Three Kings. loved her scene with Mysaria even if the dialogue was a little on the nose, with sylvi being like you’re one of Them now

rhaesaria sex was beauteous, no notes. love that Rhaenyra is a bottom with a Legitimacy/Worthiness/Divine Right kink

speaking of lezzing out I’ve really come to love jeyne arryn, chatting up honeys on her throne in between petting dogs and throwing people out the moon door like “never gets old!”

the tumbleton stuff continues to be a highlight. Ormund is maybe the best heel on the show to date. Him convincing Ulf to go treason mode was a tasty little stinger to the ep. It’s interesting that he’s making classist digs at the Commoners who witnessed daemon putting belt to ulf’s ass, as if Ulf wasn’t part of that same Rabble until very recently. it doesn’t seem to faze ulf tho, I think he’s just too Dragon drunk (and normal drunk thanks to Ormund’s ale)

[visenyaism]

I want him to build the sacrilegious church of traitor bones so bad the riverlands wants for another dark souls map

[asoiafmusings]

been thinking about larys tearing into aegon wrt the latter’s ultimate fate.

i definitely don’t think the show will erase larys’ involvement in poisoning aegon but i wonder if they might complicate it. larys has genuine care for aegon, as much as a person like larys is capable of it; the rant about aegon’s various deficiencies of character makes it pretty clear he’s not sticking around because he thinks aegon would be Good for the Realm, and he would surely find an easier path if self-interest was all that motivated him.

i try not to Theorycraft or get too attached to ideas that might not come to pass, but given how much suffering aegon still has to endure, given how suicidal he’s already been since his initial injuries, and given the staggering number of main Dance-era characters who arguably commit suicide—the show is really leaning into that theme this season with Cole—i wonder if aegon will drink larys’ poison willingly.

again, not to get too in the weeds with theorizing but if i had to outline a scenario. alicent has already given up on aegon once. she promised rhaenyra his head, but at this point in the story he will be her only surviving child. he will also have fed rhaenyra to his dragon and possibly developed a taste for cruelty and violence (i noted the catharsis he felt from killing the petty lord at the camp). with cregan stark marching on the capital, alicent will be so weary from war, and so disgusted with the only child she had consented to lose—who somehow outlasted her helaena and daeron, both of whom she tried so hard to save—that she’ll reach out to her old shadowy fixer to prevent more loss of life when the Wolves come, to put aegon out of his (and her) misery. and for the first time larys will hesitate, not because it’s regicide, but because aegon is the one piece on the board with whom larys identifies and feels something resembling Love.

he’ll pour the poison in the cup for aegon to see, and he’ll probably give a more eloquent explanation than this iconic quote from F&B, but the core message will be the same:

“you hear that, little boy? your mummy wants you dead.”

larys will tell aegon his reign is at an end, but how it ends is his choice. if aegon wants, they can escape again, and actually get out of westeros this time. the wealth of harrenhal is still in braavos. they can live well together, far from the fallout of the Dance and cregan’s coming Judgment. but aegon will only hear that his mother wants him dead. the same mother who forced him to take the throne. the meaningless horror of everything he’s been through will be laid bare and he will decide he can’t take it anymore. he’ll drink the poison, to larys’ devastation.

when the Hour of the Wolf arrives larys won’t expose alicent; in fact, he won’t offer a single word in his own defense. like so many other characters in this story, including aegon, he’ll go to the grave by choice. he will have lived too long.

[alysmond]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON | Season 3, Episode 5, "Unbowed and Unbent"

[yeris]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 3.05

[visenyaism]

COLETRIOTS WE ARE UP

[visenyaism]

Cast out by the narrative the path of righteousness leads to nowhere because you walked off the road a long time ago and you are already dead and then ground down by war into pointlessness to the barest archetype a soldier fighting to die for no cause and then an outline a tool a violent act and then not even that anymore a heart that has resolved to stop itself unremembered in the mud and☝️they will sing no songs of it

[visenyaism]

sorry literally it’s so epic that Westeros’ greatest warrior is a man who came from nothing and attained great glory by the sword only to be completely and fundamentally broken by the war he wanted and caused to the point where he isn’t human isn’t a banner and is just a memory of an archetype in history. A broken man fighting to die. a feast for the crows

[mummer]

CRISTON: knows he’s trapped in the story and is wading deeper into it on purpose

RHAENYRA: knows she’s trapped in a story but is wrong about how it will end

DAEMON: knows there’s a story but thinks he can lord his will over it

GWAYNE: thinks he can escape the story

ALICENT: thinks she can escape the story if she does it for love

LARYS: has the fundamental need to alter/change the story and leave his mark on it no matter what that mark is

AEGON: thought he could escape the story but it has seduced him into cooperation

HELAENA: breathes the story

[asoiafmusings]

S3e4 assorted thots

just reiterating everything I’ve reblogged about the tumbleton stuff. Daeron as an echo of teenaged Alicent but with a dragon, and Ormund as Otto but campier and crazier, these are incredible choices. I wasn’t Worried about daeron’s introduction this late, per se, but i think for the route they went, it was perfect

Orwyle keeping his position for now instead of languishing in the dungeons for Rhaenyra’s entire reign (I think that’s what happens in F&B?) is a welcome change. Loved Rhaenyra seeking his counsel about the high septon and Orwyle doing the obligatory “look, if you want to Remove him remove him—” and Rhaenyra reacting like damn dude I didn’t know you played like that! respect

Okay im fully on team rhaenettles now. That scene between her and daemon was so compelling and I really think they’re setting it up for Rhaena to do the Nettles stuff and then slot perfectly back into her post-Dance story. Daemon being genuinely devastated when he realizes rhaena is the dragonrider, showing her more tenderness in the space of that conversation than he has in her whole life, and not having any rebuttal to give when she calls him out on his absent parenting. Also LOVING Phoebe campbell, their performance is really selling the repressed lifelong anger and resentment that bonding with a wild dragon has brought to the surface

Jeyne Arryn’s doggies were cute. And I loved daemon haranguing her for men and then being like okay you caught me…. I actually want money 😏

Daemon employing the theon greyjoy method of “bringing back unidentifiable remains when my manhunt didn’t go well,” friggin classic daemon

Love that even having acknowledged and fostered more of a relationship with his sons, corlys is still kind of a deadbeat lmao. He runs off to deal with pirates and then tells his son to cover his shifts like “there is Opportunity for you here” as if Alyn has ANY experience with this kind of thing. But then he does pretty well with Rhaenyra! And he’s the one who suggests filling the red keep with Cats (I do kinda wish otto was the one to do this as in the book just bc I find the idea of him around a lot of cats to be very funny)

I like that the set up for Ulf defecting continues to be that Rhaenyra and daemon are just terrible to him. Like yeah he probably shouldn’t be asking the crown to give his drinking buddies farms and shit, but Rhaenyra is not doing nearly enough to placate a dude who rides a bigger dragon than she does. His throwing the “Queen of bastards” graffiti in her face was a surprisingly canny Fuck You

Speaking of which, it’s very interesting to me that the Strong colors accompany that graffiti. Like obviously Jace Luke and joff are Strong Boys but the flag of house strong feels like a detail most of the city folk wouldn’t necessarily know. It DOES feel like a very Larys move though…

which brings me to my favorite road buddies. Larys is someone whose motivations still aren’t totally clear, but I think the slow drip of info about them has been pretty effective over the three seasons. he’s obviously got a lot in common with Littlefinger but I don’t get the sense that his end goal is just Power as Baelish’s seems to be. nor do I think he’s quite like Varys in that he wants Aegon to be king because he thinks it would be, like, Good for the realm (even if he loves and sees himself in Aegon). but his pep talk to Aegon about his eventual “resurrection” becoming “the stuff of song and legend” indicates a longer view than just surviving day by day. there’s an Effect he’s hoping to have at the end of all this and I kinda appreciate that it hasn’t been spelled out yet. Ofc I would also love a Larys Centric episode in season 4 where we learn exactly what his deal is

tom glynn carney is doing amazing work playing these darkly funny scenarios completely straight. and then his scene with sunfyre… “my boy…” 😭😭😭

kinda sad we didn’t get more with alys, criston and gwayne, even if I understand they probably don’t have the time to put Every character in the weirwoodchipper. maybe there will be more next ep but I think it’s economical to just focus on alys’ relationship with aemond from here on. Also how the hell is she hiding vhagar???

[l4dyl0ck3]

I thought the dynamic of Daeron and Ormund was interesting

When Ormund had that outburst after receiving that letter, Daeron and the others watching on unsurprised as if it’s normal to see Ormund throwing a tantrum; but then when Daeron asks if Gwayne will be coming to Tumbleton as if it’s a bit of hope gave some hints that Gwayne was most likely the one to still remind him of the good things and his humanity.

Back in season 2 when Gwayne was telling Alicent how much of a good boy that Daeron was, Gwayne was most likely the “safe person” who Daeron could talk to and actually have fun with.

Alicent with her speech of “wanting one Hightower” is iffy to me, but it makes sense in a way of her wanting a sense of normalcy but then sending him away to Oldtown away from everyone else and his siblings was kind of dumb. He ends up becoming isolated and indoctrinated by a lunatic like Ormund, who she even said that Gwayne found him cruel but still sent her youngest son away to him.

Daeron didn’t stand a chance by being raised and having to live with the nutcase.

[mummer]

“gwayne thought [ormund] cruel… but gwayne thought that of many” is Such a weirdly revealing line. the concept of gwayne having a sam tarly esque horrid abusive childhood and having to pick up a sword to escape it……. i cant believe freaking gwayne has a tortured inner life… fuck my swag. gwayneeeee :(((((((

[visenyaism]

because Ormund Hightower getting in his teenage nephew’s face and coke ranting about the glory of the Hightower Reconquista that he has made up in his head that they are divinely ordained to accomplish to because of their special blood and no one understands but them IS exactly how Daemon was moving with fifteen year-old Rhaenyra in the first season of this show. kind of insane

[emmaxrosa]

wrt last reblog also the beautiful parallel between alicent and daeron pleading with their fathers to be merciful while they insist that bloodshed is a necessary evil: ‘reluctance to murder is a not a weakness!’ and ‘is mercy not a kingly virtue?’ alicent’s sad smile to gwayne when he mentions daeron’s kindness, she cannot possibly see how he might have inherited that from her :(((

[driften-sea-snake]

broke: ormund dyed daeron’s hair to protect his identity

woke: ormund dyed daeron’s hair to be more like a pure hightower, rather than a “savage” valyrian

bespoke: ormund dyed daeron’s hair to make him look more like his previous grooming victim, gwayne

[queenaegon]

alicent thought she was doing a good thing by sending daeron to oldtown. in a way, she was right. he’s considered a good boy by most everyone who knows him. what we’ve seen on screen shows him to be kind and considerate as well. but it’s clear that he was raised by a cruel and mercurial man who treats him as nothing more than a dynastic tool, in much the same way that otto viewed alicent. he is truly his mother’s son and that is the great tragedy of it all.

[alysmond]

Daeron is stalwart. Clever. As adept with his lute as he is with a sword. And a feature in the fancies of many a young lady, I'll wager. He's kind.

[asoiafmusings]

“Your father lived in a world of his own construction. You and I have never set foot there.” A raw ass line and a perfect encapsulation of viserys but also. Rhaenyra being like “the throne never changed my father” is very very funny given his observable Rotting from mysterious Throne Disease over many years