House of The Dragon: Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood - S03E01 - RECAP

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What an insane first Episode for Season 3 of House of The Dragon, this series doesnt stop making you think there is a victory without actually realize how much they loose after each victory, makes me think at the end there will be nothing left.
The whole vibe shifts immediately from where we left off and you can feel the weight of the war right from the start with Daemon finally getting the Grey Wolfs from Winterfell. Alicent returns from her secret trip to Dragonstone fully expecting her deal with Rhaenyra to proceed smoothly so she can save what is left of her family, specially her sons because I doubt she is doing it for the Greens memebers though. She wanders into the Red Keep looking completely drained, you can just see the exhaustion on her face but instead of going to her chambers she gets called by "the king" Aemond. Her entire plan hinged on handing over a bedridden king to stop the bloodshed but she hits a massive reality check the second a guard redirects her. She steps into the throne room and the visual framing immediately tells you the power dynamic has shifted completely out of her hands, you can feel her heart drop when she realizes her desperate gamble just went up in smoke seen Daemon sitting in the throne. It sets a raw tone for the rest of the first episode although we all know nothing is this easy, the series always try to play mind games, but this scenes perfectly illustrates how the older generation has completely lost control of the monsters they raised without even knowing from the moment Aemond lost his eye as a kid to take Vhagar and saying it was worth it, what can you expect from a kid that is that brave, violent and giving him basically a flying nuclear reactor??!!

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11198330/
• Platform: {{PLATFORM}}

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Aemond is sitting on the Iron Throne gripping his sword and looking like an absolute badass while Alicent walks in to face him. He is positioned exactly like Daemon was in the very first season but this time we dont got a King that wans the throne just to get drunk with his friends. You can see the panic wash over her face when he just casually informs her that Aegon is gone and she knows her whole bargain just went to shit, its a big "what I have done" moment for the episode and at that moment I was only wondering how fast Rhraenyra would attack Kings Landing. Aemond dragged the Grand Maester out of bed just to demand answers about his missing brother and he wants to stay in Kings Landing to defend it himself, refusing to fly out to join Criston Cole the way Alicent needed him to or was expecting he would. Aemon also finds out Larys actually smuggled the wounded king out of the city in a cart and they are on the run toward the coast, its very obvious to related sometimes this characters between GOT and HOTD, some of them have the same kind of behaviours. There is this scene when Larys tells soldiers he is transporting the king to get a higher reward instead of letting them kill Aegon. Aegon has become an addict to milk of the poppy while Larys admits he simply forgot to bring any during their rushed escape, almost like it was intentional of probably making him suffer to then be the hero of their own story saving him from getting killed and getting him milk of the puppy some how, which feels like the most Larys thing he has ever done. Alicent is trapped back in the capital realizing she has to somehow convince Aemond to leave the city so Rhaenyra can still take it and after all I think she got her plan to work out very cheap so far, she resorts to manipulating her own son by feeding his ego and telling him he is fearless just to get him out of the way.

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What sucked is how they handle some of the travel logic making Alicent bounce around the map in a matter of days when it should take way longer, Aemon did said she have been missing for the past 3 days but I wonder if that is what really takes from Kings Landing to Dragon Stone, imagine if on Season 2 ending Vhagar took a good amount of time to get close to the island. We also have Daemon out in the Riverlands arguing with young Oscar Tully about burning dead bodies right after the Lannister army got wrecked and also he doesnt give a shit about local customs and just wants to use his dragon to incinerate the corpses so they do not spread the plague on top of probably having a good snack for free. The young Tully lord stand his ground asking for proper graves for his fallen men but Daemon does not care at all, something I might say annoys Daemon not having the last word on every argument and just have to comply because he need the men, he need the swords. Meanwhile Caraxes starts cooking people in the background of the shot which felt hilarious and chaotic for a serious war aftermath, hilarious because its like he already knew what his rider was talking about or could it be just common behaviour for them during war, so far Caraxes and Daemon have been in multiple battlers during this series. I got to say there were not too many monologue moments or many politics speech during this first episode but for sure we goint to get those slow draggy moments at some point, even during this small moments on S03E01, the cast still made it watchable even though the tone shifts weirdly into dark comedy territory, to wark, to almost some sort of weird romance from Aemond to his mother. The Winter Wolves emerge from the woods carrying the severed head of Jason Lannister, but they still dont get enough screen time and why would they cut down such important moment, tossing his head on the ground to prove their loyalty, I guess Daemon is not up to speed with his army, how did he didnt saw the banner and said welcome to the party. Aside from the dragons would love to watch some ground battles with the Northern soldiers who marched south strictly to die fighting for their dragon queen, they are old grey beard who have no plans to go bac, only if they lucky. This whole scene when they toss the head feels heavy but the bizarre comedy timing with the dragon fire just throws the vibe off for a minute.

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I breavely read, dont want to spoil things for myself; how people have compare this to the original books you realize Daemon was not even at this specific battle since he was already heading back to Dragonstone, though I have not read the books myself and not something I want talk about during my posts since I'm just another average viewer. They are clearly changing the story to give him more screen time with the river men and justify his long isolation in the haunted castle, boring times during season two and it feels like the exact same stalling move they pulled last season, stretching things out to delay the truly massive confrontations but at least on this frist episode we got way more blood than during the entire previous season. They are building up Oscar Tully as a real leader too, who stands up to the rogue prince / king?, and it works, but you can see the machinery behind it. On the other side we see Tyland Lannister already aboard the Triarchy fleet with Lohar as their attack on the Sea Snake blockade begins, which is where this episodes really starts delivering and picking up a brutal pace, one scene after another. Lohar does not even care about the actual war and only wants to use this opportunity to gut Corlys Velaryon for every time he had chase them and cut them down over and over again. Lohar is an unhinged character who became really unpredictable and did more damage to the Greens army than what she really help them but it was expected as they are pirates, not only she told to Lannister face that she had no interest to fight for his king but the way she make her ship lighter, not trying to spoil things; this was a savage moment. This episode does not tease the sea battle as some future moment either, it throws you right into the actual Battle of the Gullet as the Triarchy slams into the Velaryon blockade with everything they have. The tension that builds as the Velaryon fleet realizes they are suddenly out numbered by an enemy they thought was defeated years ago, but it was so damn smart how the Sea Snake out manuver them, and then the dragons start moving and things escalate into something you were not fully prepared for and this was literally NOT what everyone was expecting, this was not Daenrys destroying and entire fleet with her three dragons and going back home without any loosses, this time it was a massive battle with bigger looses on both sides that you cant even tell who really won.

Hands down I would probably rank this episode in the top 5 best episodes of the entire series, this first episode is a solid start but the pacing feels all over the place as it tries to juggle too many separate locations, and honestly I would say this episodes lack a breather, a cool down moment. It is totally dope to see the dragons out in the open like Sheepstealer who literally cooks a massive carcass before eating it like a post battle snack, watching Rhaena struggle to tame that aggressive beast adds so much danger because the dragon completely ignores her even when talking Valyrian, almost like he understand but decides when to obey, not like when we saw Rhaenyra talking to Vermithor on Season 2, but got to admit she has way more composture on her voice that crying and un expirience Rhaena. The creature has a massive underbite and jagged teeth that make it look absolutely savage and wild compared to the pampered dragons raised in the royal pits. Even with the Battle of the Gullet going off, parts of this first episode still feel like everyone is just positioning the next wave of chaos rather than fully committing, which is both exciting and a little maddening, after all the Triarchy facing the Sea Snake is from the last episode of Season 2, that and Sheepstealer and Rhaena was no surprise or spoiler for anyone watching the series. We also get that extremely uncomfortable moment where Aemond leans in and kisses his mother on the lips which felt more like bait to see if she gets hooked, the truth is that it felt out of place and unnecessary since he didnt fully commit. This interaction between Aemon and Alicent made me think if this was the writers fault trying to imply something here, like he still doesnt own or felt he has the absolute power to what ever he wants, idk just a thought. I am giving this one a solid 8.5/10 because the raw battle aftermath and the dragon visuals are fantastic to say the least, plus Rhaena screwing up bit time. I am just hoping they stop playing around with the slow travel sequences and unleash the chaos we all know is brewing. This war needs to finally explode and I want to see the Greens and the Reds face the nightmare they have created for themselves.

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