re: House of the Dragon | S1 E9 | The Green Council

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First episode I felt the show fell into some plot contrivances and put spectacle over logic/reason.(not 15 minutes earlier Rhaenys is told she cant go get her dragons cause the Hightower's anticipated that and will have it heavily guarded, then she just waltzs into the pit through a convenient unguarded side entrance, decides to kill a bunch of civilians and not do the thing that would protect her family and prevent escalatory bloodshed in the realm)

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Yeah I felt the show should have just had her leave out of a side door or something. or even have her burst through the boards but immediately head for the door. The whole stare down thing made it dumb. She had the opportunity to end the whole thing and didn't. Tha makes her stupid.

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It was pretty important for them to establish the race between Alicent and Otto to be the first to get to Aegon, and the result will have some pretty significant implications moving forward.

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Yeah but that was established when they both sent out "bounty hunters" to get Aegon and bring hin to them specifically. They took what should have been 10 minutes and stretched it out to like 30 minutes.

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I think she’s still figuring out where all the chess pieces are and what is in her own best interests.

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How so? The greens imprisoned her and took her Dragon while the blacks are going to marry her legitimate grandchildren.

She has already picked a side. Or at the very least a side was picked for her.

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Look, I'll get over this ridiculous scene, but I hope it's not a sign of things to come.

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Yeah but that was established when they both sent out "bounty hunters" to get Aegon and bring hin to them specifically. They took what should have been 10 minutes and stretched it out to like 30 minutes.

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Eh, they also had to flesh out what happens with the Cargyll twins on the Kingsguard.

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That's absurd. Both factions know that the only resolution will come from the death of the other. They've hammered that home for several episodes.

Look, I'll get over this ridiculous scene, but I hope it's not a sign of things to come. I don't think it is, mostly because George is trying to mend his fractured legacy, but we'll see.

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Honestly, I imagine an alternate reality where each episode didnt have a 20 million dollar budget and the sense they need to use it all. And I think in this particular scenario, it would have been for the better.

An episode where the tension of the concurrent storylines continues to the final beat with Rhaenys as she attempts to elude capture after the coronation, get her dragon(or maybe even not), and make a desperate escape. Since you wouldn't have the budget for the spectacle, instead you go for a more grounded and realistic escape, dragon or no.

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I agree. I don't think it is a sign of things to come. I think they had a politically driven episode with no action and decided to create action and by doing so they made a character act without logic.

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I think so too.

I think the writers had in their head: "This is the penultimate, and penultimate's need a big spectacle, and having an episode centered aroind a counsel meeting, a coronation, and a simultaneous ground level search and escape plot going concurrently isnt enough....Even though I think it would have been the better choice

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Not a book reader, but if she burns the "green family" up last night doesn't most of the future story and seasons become moot?

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Thats my point. Don't put Rhaenys in a situation where she could end it all and then have her not do it. It makes her character look stupid. Just have her leave a side door or burst through the floor and head straight for the door. At least logically heading for the door makes sense cuz she is trying to escape. But having her stare down the Greens and not end them was a dumb illogical move.

Haha, these people saying that Rhaenys should’ve ended the entire thing right there don’t get it. She didn’t do it for several reasons.

1) The reasoning that is well addressed throughout this thread that she has honor and did not want to be the king slayer. Whether she killed the people when erupting through the floor doesn’t matter. No one in the realm cares about those people, however, there are a lot of houses in the realm that would not look favorably on that move and it would likely invite a civil war anyway. Don’t forget at this point we are coming off of an extended time of peace, and it would almost certainly create chaos. Hell, considering the minimal communication across the realm, people could believe that Viserys actually did change and name Aegon and then her actions would be interpreted as the usurping party.

2) Despite their rivalry over Viserys being named king, it is pretty obvious that Rhaenys and Viserys loved each other. Again she is an honorable woman, and by torching the whole scene she would be killing 3 of Viserys’ children and also his wife, who Viserys loved. Alicient also appears to have loved him.

These are always situations where just because on the surface it would’ve avoided a civil war, MAYBE, doesn’t mean it’s the right move or even the move that she would ever make in the scenario. If Daemon was the one trying to escape it would be a different story

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Meleys is I think the fastest dragon.

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Yep - faster than Caraxes and Vhagar.

Also one of the older dragons and supposedly one of the most cunning.

Plus - Aemond was still a relatively inexperienced rider at that point.