#and aegon is like Haha Great another person who no longer loves me This Is Fine

[saintbehemoth]

Hating Jacegon is so real 😭😘

😭😭😭 like they make a great eldest son/heir parallel but the way i see them spoken about sometimes….. (pointing) who THE HELL is that.

that being said i do have a jacegon draft. so. 😭 my tales are always the most correct obviously /j

[tridentqueen]

share your thoughts about ep 1 and pls give us a spoiler

Hello! Thank you for asking ❤️ Putting everything under the cut!

Just in case: I do not mention book spoilers for the Dance itself, but I do bring in like one or two points from Fire & Blood related to scenes in the episode.

This is all going off memory, so it might be a little jumbled. Also, this is not an invitation to start team discourse or character bashing. That’s not what this blog is for. That said, I’m happy to talk more about the episode if anyone wants!

Overall I thought it was a good episode until the end (more on that later). The beginning was a little rough with the number of short scenes/cuts (is that the right word? lol), but I totally understand the necessity of getting all the major players on the screen in the first few minutes.

I am a Stark girlie first, so it was nice to see the North again and hear the Winterfell theme. With very little direct mention of the White Walkers, I’m curious to see if the show leans into the Song of Ice and Fire prophecy going forward. This is a complete aside, but I’m not really sure how I feel about it. I’m pretty sure Aegon’s dream came straight from Martin, but idk if I buy that the knowledge survived Maegor. Maybe Aegon the Uncrowned told Rhaena, and she told Jaehaerys? I don’t know.

ANYWAY I guess I thought we would have a longer scene with Jace and Cregan showing more of their friendship or bond, but with only 8 episodes this season the writers couldn’t really allow that to breathe. In a world with 9 or even 10 episodes this season, I think (and this is totally off the cuff) a good premiere would have covered Jace’s time in the North, Rhaenyra searching for Luke and deciding that she will go to war, Team Black’s grief, the Greens finding out about Luke’s death and their reactions/realizing war is no doubt inevitable now/etc. and leaving Blood & Cheese for the second episode.

Rhaenyra’s scenes were extremely powerful. Emma is such an amazing actor, and you can really feel Rhaenyra’s grief and anger. Jace’s return, their embrace, and Luke’s funeral were excellent. I wish there had been more time to explore their grief, but I get it.

Rhaenys’s “Would that you were king” was so great lmao. I loved Rhaenys in the book, and I’m looking forward to seeing her role this season. Corlys wasn’t really in the episode a lot, but his scene with Alyn was interesting. It wasn’t clear to me what exactly their relationship with each other is at this point, but we’ll see how the show approaches it.

I don’t have super strong feelings about Daemon telling Blood & Cheese to go after Aemond. I know before the episode aired some people were mad because they thought it was going to be another case of misunderstanding/them going rogue on their own, but I thought the episode made it pretty clear that he told them off-screen to kill Helaena’s son if they couldn’t find Aemond. Jaehaerys and Helaena were the targets from the get-go in the book, and there is lots to be said about the dishonor of targeting a child during a war and the psychological damage his death was intended to inflict, but this is a change I’m personally okay with. I totally understand if people aren’t, though.

Aegon was great! I’d seen TGC being referred to as one of the standouts of the first four episodes, and wow is that completely right. He seems to me the type of dad who likes to play with the kids but then won’t discipline them haha. Tyland beefing with Jaehaerys was hilarious. Aegon is still new at the whole king thing, and I’ll admit I was side-eying him a little with Otto when he was like “yeah, everyone can get everything they’re asking for, it’s whatever” but as my friend (and others) pointed out it completely tracks with him wanting to be liked by everyone. It also is a good continuation of his coronation scene – you can see him transform when the crowd starts to cheer, so it makes sense that he’d want to keep that energy going, especially with a rival claimant.

Also, I think Otto is such a fun character. Him immediately turning to walk up the steps of the throne as soon as Aegon said anything was so funny to me. I know a lot of people hate Otto, but I do think he’s a good Hand of the King.

I’m really interested to see how Alicent’s arc goes this season, how much influence she’ll have as the war goes on and all that and how she’ll feel about everything. Right now her and Otto are both frustrated by Aegon (and Aemond) so I’m excited by the potential there. I’m also curious about her reaction next episode – she’s still wanting peace right now (understandable! Dragons going to war only brings death and destruction, fire & blood) but that might change after Jaehaerys’s murder. We shall see.

I’m fine with Alicole happening because it was clear in season 1 that they were devoted to each other, but I wish we had gotten more build up to it rather than just starting the episode with them together because it just raises a ton of questions. When did they start, being the obvious one. And them being together during Blood & Cheese was ridiculous. I’ve seen some people blaming them for it even happening, which is also silly.

On the topic of Blood & Cheese… wow I hated how they adapted it. The entire reason they sneaked in through the secret passageways in the book was because of the sheer number of guards in the Red Keep. Yet in the show there’s not a single one in the wing in which the royal family reside? Please be serious. And them just walking through the throne room? Stop. I’m assuming they’re trying to go with everyone having a sense of guilt over it but come on.

And Helaena’s reaction was way too muted. I understand that she was disassociating, but to only have her offer her necklace and then just point Jaehaerys out? No. My friend mentioned to me that in Helaena’s first scene she is saying something like “they only want the boy,” which I completely missed, so she apparently already saw it happening. And I think that could have opened the door (and maybe it will in future episodes, I can’t say) to explore how Helaena’s dreams “work” – the show hasn’t really done a lot with it, and I think it would have been really powerful if Helaena did all she could to try to change it. A “I saw this happening, but I’m going to fight tooth and nail to prevent my dream from coming true and prove the future is not set in stone” type of thing and then the tragedy of maybe it cannot be changed, after all.  

Blood & Cheese is one of (if not THE) worst moments of the entire Dance and it’s a moment that was supposed to really make the viewers ask themselves “what is the cost of the Iron Throne?” And the heartbreak of Helaena, after realizing Blood & Cheese will not kill her instead in exchange for her sons’ lives, having to choose between her children and then having to live with that choice. This was supposed to be a Catelyn Stark at the Red Wedding moment, but instead more people are talking about Alicole or the dog being kicked than a child being murdered. Phia’s performance was great though.

All of the actors are phenomenal, and I was super excited to see everyone again. We are so fucking back! (This was way longer than I thought it would be. Anon I’m sorry if you didn’t intend for me to write so much! Haha)

Spoilers for part two (pretty minor imo):

Since Aly and Aegon will be separated for most of the war, there will be more Aegon POV chapters than part one.

I will be including a scene where the Greens find out about Luke’s death because there is so much potential there.