House of the Dragon Season 2 REVIEW | Episode 3 The Burning Mill

Rhaenyra accuses her war council of treason merely for advising her to leave them, only to then immediately leave on her own accord on a foolish and highly dangerous mission, that results in Alicent telling her the exact same thing her war council already told her: "there is no way back, stop being silly and start living in the real world". She's a pretty bad queen and she gets worse the more she listens to Rhaenys, who seems to love accusing Rhaenyra's advisors of disloyalty merely for giving advice she disagrees with.

When Viserys was indecisive and refused to act, he was called a bad king who wasn't willing to do what must be done and let problems fester. When Rhaenyra is indecisive and refuses to act, she is called a wise queen who knows much better than all those rash hotheaded men around her.

I love how they really leaned into the whole harrenhal being haunted. Felt almost like a horror movie in those scenes

I find Rhaenyra frustrating. It feels like she's going through show Jon Snow syndrome. Where the darker edges and more unpleasant sides to her character don't stick. She does or says one thing in one episode that you think will change the way she acts moving forward, but then next episode either through someone else's actions or just script work, it doesn't stick. Almost any decision she makes (outside of Mysaria) is overtaken by someone else, and I know that's part of the story, but it prevents her from making any character decisions or showing her colors. It kinda pisses me off that the death of her son and her rage from that which develops into her basically ordering an assassination on her nephew, then Daemon does a Daemon and now that doesn't matter anymore. It's now just Daemon doing Daemon things. It's like they keep sanding down her edges. This has been happening since she got crowned. It reminds me of the resurrected Jon and how he starts by executing the people he blames for his death, one of which is a child. And you think, oh... this is a new Jon. Then, he just returns to normal, and it never comes up again.

Strange. When I walk around the neighbourhood naked people usually call me a freak, not confident.

That dramatic turn around at the end of season one was just Rheyneara having gas. She's actually peacefully calling the crowned King a usurper for funsies, and is just courting other houses for a peaceful drum circle to honor the crown. Silly men and their wars.

My favourite part was seeing Daemon walking through Harrenhall

Rhaenyra seems as terrible a leader as Viserys. I have trouble believing that a woman that would have 3 bastards would be so hesitant to act.

Alicent and Rhaenyra meeting made no sense and I would argue it ruined the tragic theme of this show. Imagine instead how tragically impactful it would've been to the audience if Rhaenyra and Alicent *never realised* that there was a misunderstanding regarding the prophecy that started the civil war, and that's what leads into the events of GOT where nobody knows about the White Walkers. It would also leave it a grey area where the audience could decide if they thought Alicent was lying about it or if she believed Viserys. There's a scene in the Japanese movie 'Battle Royale' where a bunch of girls murder each other because of a tragic misunderstanding regarding poisoned soup and that's stuck with me long after the one time I've watched the film because they all go to their deaths while killing each other afraid that someone is trying to kill them. Instead Rhaenyra, the rival Queen, goes directly into the capital of her rival, to speak to the mother of her rival, not to mention the grandmother of a boy she might've had a hand in brutally murdering to talk to her? What? And in the scene she finds out about the misunderstanding. This, along with a few other factors such as Queen Helaena seemingly not driven mad by the murder of her son is deviating the show a bit too far from the source material than I would've preferred. I get that adaptations have to make stylistic, thematic and writing changes but this show is starting to become a bit of a meme in my household as the *"Whooops! [The horrible act] was just a misunderstanding the whole time!"* show. Some of that was good, but it's dragging on a bit too long now. The tragic misunderstanding thing made the end of season 1 better than the source material in my opinion, but them continuing to use it over and over is actually making the show worse at the moment. And the characters keep simply stating their motivations or guilts a lot. Harrenhal was great though.

I'm annoyed that Rhaenyra just happened to show up the exact moment that Alicent walked in the courtyard