Second of His Name

This is definitely my favourite episode so far. The acting was as always outstanding. Without giving anything away, I want to say that there were a couple of unexpected moments through the episode. These moments only made it more exciting to watch. I think that they did a great Job with the time jump. Personally I was a bit scared about the time jumps, but this one was done in a proper way. You immediately knew what happened in those 3 years and it didn't get confusing to me. The most exciting part of this episode was definitely the battle in the Stepstones. The directing and fighting was phenomenal. After watching this one, I am even more curious about what's going to happen in the next! Definitely worth watching.

Well, you are definitely not getting bored watching this episode, that is for sure.. Costumes are just fine, actors playing just fine, CGI is - just fine, but we are missing the "wow" factor here. We are missing intrigue and strong plot up to now, also struggling to get attached to any character. However, I can understand we all tend to compare this series with GoT and rightfully so, being directly related to the events that unfolded in GoT. I think we don't do ourselves any favor here. GoT had a vast area to play with characters, houses, plots, intrigue, fights etc yet here we focus in one House only. For the series to make you appreciate the story in the same way GoT did is -by default- more challenging. Yet, we have a good flow up to now, I am looking forward to appreciate HoD for what is supposed to be and not for pretending to be GoT II.

9/10

Solid third episode. Started kinda slow but ended really strong. King Viserys Targaryen is slowly becoming my favorite character in this show. His development in this episode was S tier. Rhaenyra's arc this episode was also beautiful. The imagery with Rhaenyra being the one to find the white stag was great. And to top it all off, we end off the episode with a great battle.

The War for the Stepstones is great. Daemon and the Velaryons are struggling to subdue Prince Dahar the Crabfeeder for over three years. But with one letter from his brother, Daemon commits war crimes to get victory over his enemy. Great episode overall. Definitely better than episode 2 but still isn't as great as episode 1.

Actually, the director of this episode doesn't seem to be very good at directing battle scenes on the battlefield. They should let Miguel Sapochnik direct the fight scenes in this episode. Personally, the battle scene at the end of this episode didn't convince me. Just all the blood and killing each other, so disturbing and uncomfortable, instead of giving the viewer a sense of drama and fear when the characters rushed into battle. When I saw Daemon hurling himself at the pirates and getting a rain of arrows, I was pretty sure he would survive, so what's the point of that scene? Even the fact that the crabfeeder was killed so easily and without saying a single word, this unsurprised me no more than a Velaryon riding a dragon and shouting "Dracarys!". Wow what a not-so-interesting scene. I was waiting for the climax at the end, and I was disappointed. Actually the detail at the end could develop the Daemon character, but the beach fight scene is really boring. GOT has a lot of interesting battles, but this is not one of them.

Speaking of what happened before that battle, wow I must say I'm so satisfied. King Viserys is so well developed and as a viewer and know many interesting GOT characters, I'm starting to get interested in this squishy and soft king. The emotions and thoughts that Viserys has experienced and felt in more than 10 years of being King, I can personally understand through just over half an hour in this episode. And including the relationship between father and daughter, the disagreement between generations, I believe this episode has messages for real-life families, in today's modern generation as well. And once again I would like to commend the team of costumes, setting design, so beautiful, so dreamy. Through this episode we also get to know many new characters, and hopefully they will join this game in a larger role.

The politics and family drama is very intricate and intriguing. The same can not be said about the big battle sequence. It's very well made and it looks phenomenal but it's way too predictable which honestly makes it underwhelming. Spectacular things happen on the screen but there is no tension or stakes which makes it kinda meh. A good fight scene is only as good as the writing.

It is still a great episode. The relationships are very intricate and it's understandable why every character acts the way they do. Everyone has their own agenda and they can't please anyone without hurting someone else they care about. The ancient norms and rules are questioned and the discussions regarding duty and love are thought-provoking and interesting. The stakes are immense and the air is full of tension.