House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 5 - "Regent"

[DarthSkywalker]

It certainly didn't suck, at all. It was just slower and filling in gaps, setting things up. Some great world and character work imo. DIrection, dialogue, design and performances all still on point as well.

Disagree. What character work is being done with Daemon that hasn't been done for weeks already? What gaps are being filled?

And I don't think repeatedly stating the themes of the show is great dialogue.

 

[#root]

So Rhaenyra gets the Cruel moniker all because of Daemon’s **** ups?

Not much happened this episode. The best part was defintely Alicent realising the consequences of her own actions. I do hope we get more dialogue from Helaena before the season ends. I feel like they keep her quiet too much whenever she’s on screen.

 

[Drizzle]

Disagree. What character work is being done with Daemon that hasn't been done for weeks already? What gaps are being filled?

And I don't think repeatedly stating the themes of the show is great dialogue.

Daemon's a whole other story but there was some good character building happening with Alicent during the council scene as well as Jace starting to take initiative and gain more support for Rhaenyra and Baela giving Corlys a much needed pep talk. I'll agree that Daemon being stuck in Harrenhall for multiple episodes hasn't done much for his character other than a few comic relief moments and the occasional shock value scene. What would have helped is if we actually saw what the Blackwoods were doing to the Brackens even if Daemon wasn't there.

 

[emielaen]

Disagree. What character work is being done with Daemon that hasn't been done for weeks already? What gaps are being filled?

And I don't think repeatedly stating the themes of the show is great dialogue.

He's seeing that all of these things he's "hallucinating" have real consequences and that he just might not be able to handle everything on his own through force considering how the Bracken/Blackwood situation went. It was a win that quickly fell short because he's not giving in and learning from the things he's seeing. He's avoiding their truths. Having us and him hear the devastation that he ordered but neither of us seeing it puts us in his shoes entirely. He's avoiding the actual people that he wants to gain control of because he's hellbent on having absolute power over them as opposed to working with them. He's also not the only character on the show.

Baela and Jace both had really good moments with their elders, holding their own in the process while showing different dimensions. Those are gaps being filled on the Team Black side of things imo, as well as expanding the world. Team Green continue to be enticing, especially w Alicent and even Cole realizing how real this war **** is, and Rhyneara is always interesting to follow.

The episode could've used something a little more explosive or kinetic, maybe, but "it sucked"? Agree to disagree.

 

[Weather Witch]

Baela and Jace both had really good moments with their elders, holding their own in the process while showing different dimensions. Those are gaps being filled on the Team Black side of things imo, as well as expanding the world. Team Green continue to be enticing, especially w Alicent and even Cole realizing how real this war **** is, and Rhyneara is always interesting to follow.

While I liked 1x09 and 1x10, I was worried that the show might suffer now that the characters are split into different camps. The Gifted, for example, became way less interesting when the characters were divided between the Underground and the Hellfire Club. They've done a good job working around this by providing each group with internal struggles. The younger POV characters like Jace, Baela, Rhaena, Aegon, Haelena, and Aemond have really come into their own. Plus, we've gotten a lot of new character pairings to keep things fresh.

The absence of Otto Hightower is definitely felt. The fact that they're making us miss him with all these bad decisions being made really works for me though. It was likely done to accommodate Rhys Ifans shooting Venom 3, which sucks because that production got halted due to the strikes. Since they couldn't do any new writing on set, I don't expect they got him back any earlier than planned. He might still get some scenes, but they could just bring him back alongside Daeron next season as well.

I'm also really optimistic looking at the directors for the next three episodes. Geeta Patel's episodes have been amazing so far. Andrij Parekh and Loni Peristere may be newcomers to the franchise, but they've both got very impressive resumes.

 

[Drizzle]

The absence of Otto Hightower is definitely felt. The fact that they're making us miss him with all these bad decisions being made really works for me though. It was likely done to accommodate Rhys Ifans shooting Venom 3, which sucks because that production got halted due to the strikes. Since they couldn't do any new writing on set, I don't expect they got him back any earlier than planned. He might still get some scenes, but they could just bring him back alongside Daeron next season as well.

I miss Rhys Ifans's presence as well but I don't think it was because of Venom 3 since he would still have had contractual obligations for HOTD and if the schedules couldn't work out then I don't think he could have done the movie. I think this was more about getting Otto out of King's Landing so that he wasn't stuck there with nothing to do while his grandsons cause chaos. It'd be cool to see Otto again this season but since we haven't heard anything about casting for Daeron I wouldn't count on seeing him again until season three.

 

[Weather Witch]

I miss Rhys Ifans's presence as well but I don't think it was because of Venom 3 since he would still have had contractual obligations for HOTD and if the schedules couldn't work out then I don't think he could have done the movie. I think this was more about getting Otto out of King's Landing so that he wasn't stuck there with nothing to do while his grandsons cause chaos. It'd be cool to see Otto again this season but since we haven't heard anything about casting for Daeron I wouldn't count on seeing him again until season three.

Hmm true, it could also be purely a story decision, but Venom 3 did film at the same time as the episodes of HOTD he missed at least. I agree though that Otto's reputation as a character would've taken a Tyrion in S7/S8 level hit if he was just sitting by and watching these events. Now he gets to gracefully return and try and correct course whenever he comes back.

 

[Drizzle]