The Burning Mill

There are two positive points in this episode and two negative points that unfortunately illustrate this season well so far.

The positive points are:

Production: King's Landing and Harrenhall have never looked so beautiful, making the world of the books truly transport to TV.

Acting: The casting could not better. Practically all the actors are excellent in their roles, delivering relatable characters.

But these points live far from the soul of a TV production, the script room. And there are the negative points:

Pacing: The series appears to not know how to balance moments of tension and moments of respite, often using 1 hour to end at a point slightly different from where the episode began, both in terms of narrative and character development. This episode is an example of this: which character took a significant leap in transformation over the course of the hour?

Cohesion: Unfortunately, the characters don't seem as intelligent as players in a game of thrones should be. Rhaenyra doesn't seem to think a move forward in her actions. If she could convince Alicent, what real difference would it make? It was a very, very risky plan, it could put his entire family, offspring and legacy at risk in the vain hope of convincing someone who doesn't even seem to have that much power over his children. Rhaenys does not have coherence in her ideas. Sometimes she seems to want war, sometimes peace. Sometimes she seems to believe in Rhanyra, sometimes she doubts her. All without motivation or reason.

There are good adaptations in this series, such as the old friendship of the two female protagonists, but the wit of those who play the game of thrones to survive is often given up in favor of a dramatic scene for the audience. And that makes such a fantastic world seem less believable.

This episode really made me realize and remember why I don't enjoy HOTD as much as GOT.. first of all it's season two there SHOULD and must be a presence of battles there isn't a coronavirus excuse anymore they have the budget they have the resources to do it but they choose not to.

Secondly which in my opinion is the biggest reason, is that there isn't really one or two characters you want to root for them there isn't a charming or an interesting character that makes you love them it's just a whole bunch of characters who are just driven by the script and you feel nothing for them, maybe some people do but I don't. Overall it's a good episode and it did it's job well but they have to start doing big things otherwise the wait will be for nothing.

Being scene Game of thrones twice, I can surely assert that house of dragon does not have the emotional quotient which it has the potential of having! Episode 3 could have been one but it wasted on highest level! Two queens, best friends, family members meet at the climax of the episode to have a mature conversation like to abandon the war and the entire sequence is wasted like it's written by a 8 year old child! "I started of to badly" one of lines from the queen which I thought is true for entire episode! The war was cut short to just see bodies, alicent behavior change is just getting creepy! I hope the next episode is the one which they wanted to spend time on.

Obviously for budget expenses they couldn't put a battle like the one of the burning mill in full. But now the war has begun and you can feel it from all the characters who have started to play their role well.

The brothel scene is a bit avoidable but not bad as a basic episode for the battles that will take place in the fourth. I would have preferred it to end with the fall of Rosby or Stokeworth. Or with the arrival of Cole's troops in Duskendale. But I'm still happy with how, even if very calmly in the series, they want to represent the war in every millimeter with episodes that will slowly become darker! I can't wait.

Another episode that slowly lead us to the start of the ending..All the pieces are in place and nothing can stop the unavoidable Dance of the Dragons..Again great performances by everyone in the cast. Just from the title of the episode im so hyped up for next Sunday..I expect one of the episodes i have ever seen not gonna lie..A little disappointed that they skipped Burning Mill like that but i guess they want to go all in next week..I hope at least

One thing for me,its easy for the book readers to understand who is who,but putting so much characters with so little screentime feels a little off sometimes..But thats on me and my fear that the -2 episodes will make things more rush than it should be

Nevertheless another very good episode..But now we need a BANGER.