TheCardhouse posted:

Huh? My point is that everything in the episode seemed to point to it being ambiguous but very ominous what happened to Dyana. The director coming out and explicitly saying "no, we didn't mean to leave you wondering, the tea Dyana drank was definitely the same one Rhaenyra was given earlier in the season" completely blows that idea up.

You say you thought there was ambiguity in the scene but if you take the interview answer at face value, you are simply wrong just like me. It wasn't supposed to be ambiguous, Alicent definitely didn't harm her, we are both just reading way too much into it.

That answer does not make sense to me. It just doesn't seem to match how she actually directed those scenes at all. The scenes imply it's ambiguous, the interview says it's not.

So yeah given that apparently irreconcilable conflict, my instinct is to go with what the show seemed to say over the interview answer. If they want to make it clear that Dyana is alive I feel like they should do it in the show, not just in an interview.

My idea that maybe she felt "pressured" (probably a bad word for what I was really trying to suggest) into that answer is me trying to rationalize not taking the interview answer at face value. She did have to be asked the question twice, the first time she dodged it and just said "we're still waiting on the answer". Maybe she didn't feel comfortable dodging the follow up also? Again it's a rationalization to try to explain why the interview answer and the episode don't seem to match to me.

Or maybe I really am just straight up wrong about all of that and I did completely misunderstand the scene with Dyana, and I'll look like a complete idiot when she turns up later on. Not a big deal. It was an idea about a TV show, not some conspiracy theory.

Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:

As for what I alluded to above (possible spoilers from post-credits interviews?): the showrunners said that they hope to be invited back for more which made it seem like there was a question about the possibility of a second season and that this story would be resolved by the finale. I haven't read the book and all I know is from Joffery's exposition to Sansa, but it seems like we are ripping through this story and these character's lives. I think we are averaging 5-10 years per episode, so I would be surprised if they just stretched a war out over a whole season unless that war lasts another 50+ years...which I guess it could. That just seems like a completely different show with a much larger vfx budget.

Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:

GRRM came to the bookstore I worked at to do a signing and someone asked him a very detailed question about Long Winters and an inner asteroid belt and orbital mechanics and had worked out all of the math to say how all of this was physically possible and George's answer was "I made it all up and never thought about it."

Xiahou Dun posted:

You sound like you're about to accuse Alicent of harvesting adrenochrome in the basement ; I was being uncharacteristically polite. You're literally taking evidence and saying it must mean the opposite because of a secret code you made up. That's not good discussion and if this line of thinking pops up in the rest of your life where you assume interviews have secret puzzle information you need to unlock, then you should probably consider what that means about you and how you process information. Preferably before you think Beto O'Rourke is gangstalking you.

Xiahou Dun posted:

After the scene where Otto confronts Viserys about Rhaenyra and Daemon in the brothel, there's that scene where she hands little urchin a poo poo ton of money and thanks him for telling her things that happen in the brothel.

I think that's more than "implied".

TheCardhouse posted:

Huh? My point is that everything in the episode seemed to point to it being ambiguous but very ominous what happened to Dyana. The director coming out and explicitly saying "no, we didn't mean to leave you wondering, the tea Dyana drank was definitely the same one Rhaenyra was given earlier in the season" completely blows that idea up.

You say you thought there was ambiguity in the scene but if you take the interview answer at face value, you are simply wrong just like me. It wasn't supposed to be ambiguous, Alicent definitely didn't harm her, we are both just reading way too much into it.

That answer does not make sense to me. It just doesn't seem to match how she actually directed those scenes at all. The scenes imply it's ambiguous, the interview says it's not.

So yeah given that apparently irreconcilable conflict, my instinct is to go with what the show seemed to say over the interview answer. If they want to make it clear that Dyana is alive I feel like they should do it in the show, not just in an interview.

My idea that maybe she felt "pressured" (probably a bad word for what I was really trying to suggest) into that answer is me trying to rationalize not taking the interview answer at face value. She did have to be asked the question twice, the first time she dodged it and just said "we're still waiting on the answer". Maybe she didn't feel comfortable dodging the follow up also? Again it's a rationalization to try to explain why the interview answer and the episode don't seem to match to me.

Or maybe I really am just straight up wrong about all of that and I did completely misunderstand the scene with Dyana, and I'll look like a complete idiot when she turns up later on. Not a big deal. It was an idea about a TV show, not some conspiracy theory.

A Buttery Pastry posted:

You're definitely not a crazy person for thinking this though.

zoux posted:

Alicent was definitely trying to put the fear of god in her with all the "I believe you but others might not if you go talking" to keep her scared, and was pretty callous making her drink antifreeze, but I thought it was a good mix of concern, tenderness, and understanding with the reality of a looming succession crisis. It was a nice, complex character study.

I think one of the things that was so gratifying about Viseys showing up to sit the throne is that the Greens were just so loving smug, this was their master stroke, it was going to basically be the beginning of the end for Rhaenyra as the throne officially recognizes there is something fishy about those kids, and Rhaenys basically told the same to Rhaenyras face. Emma Darcy and Consodine do a great job of the scene where she's begging him to save her and you can't tell if she's getting through to his drug addled mind, but it doesn't seem like it. And the next day poo poo is going real bad for the Blacks in the throne room and the Viserys comes to us at the turn of the tide and you can just see the defeat appear on the face of the Hightowers and allies. Just a fantastic sequence, and so unlike the heroic rescues we're used to in film and TV, though it was an act of heroism and gallantry as deep as any we've seen in fantasy. I know nothing I've said is revelatory or even particularly original, I just keep thinking about the whole thing and how watching a skeletal, bent old man drag himself across a room made me feel the same as I did watching the Ride of the Rohirrim or the Adama Maneuver.

Tosk posted:

Agreed. Rings of Power has disappointed me, especially viewed next to HoD. People don't want to compare them because they are very different flavors of fantasy, but beyond that you can just tell that this story has been crafted with infinite more care and subtlety. Both series are even unique in that they're not adapted from traditional novels but more like history books of their respective settings.

Together with the dinner afterwards, the latest episode in general was an acting masterstroke. Red Wedding aside, I'm trying to think of GoT scenes I found equally evocative (I stopped watching in season 5).

I didn't see if anyone clarified, but in case anyone is still wondering about the pig like I was until I thought about the previous episodes for awhile, I'm pretty sure it's a reference to how they dressed Aemond up as a pig and teased him about not having a dragon when they were kids, which was a pretty stupid throwback for them to make in-universe. Aemond is doubtless a complete monster but you can't blame him for being enraged at that.

ruddiger posted:

It was just a jape, bro

Tosk posted:

Agreed. Rings of Power has disappointed me, especially viewed next to HoD. People don't want to compare them because they are very different flavors of fantasy, but beyond that you can just tell that this story has been crafted with infinite more care and subtlety. Both series are even unique in that they're not adapted from traditional novels but more like history books of their respective settings.

Together with the dinner afterwards, the latest episode in general was an acting masterstroke. Red Wedding aside, I'm trying to think of GoT scenes I found equally evocative (I stopped watching in season 5).

I didn't see if anyone clarified, but in case anyone is still wondering about the pig like I was until I thought about the previous episodes for awhile, I'm pretty sure it's a reference to how they dressed Aemond up as a pig and teased him about not having a dragon when they were kids, which was a pretty stupid throwback for them to make in-universe. Aemond is doubtless a complete monster but you can't blame him for being enraged at that.

Xiahou Dun posted:

Dressed a pig up as a dragon.

Aemond has not dressed up as pig at any point, sadly, even though it would be pretty great. At least not on screen. I guess we can hope going forward?

thebardyspoon posted:

It'd be a real power move to dress up as a pig and dare anyone to say any poo poo to you with that dragon and his apparent skill with a sword.

Xiahou Dun posted:

You sound like you're about to accuse Alicent of harvesting adrenochrome in the basement ; I was being uncharacteristically polite. You're literally taking evidence and saying it must mean the opposite because of a secret code you made up. That's not good discussion and if this line of thinking pops up in the rest of your life where you assume interviews have secret puzzle information you need to unlock, then you should probably consider what that means about you and how you process information. Preferably before you think Beto O'Rourke is gangstalking you.

zoux posted:

I think one of the things that was so gratifying about Viseys showing up to sit the throne is that the Greens were just so loving smug, this was their master stroke, it was going to basically be the beginning of the end for Rhaenyra as the throne officially recognizes there is something fishy about those kids, and Rhaenys basically told the same to Rhaenyras face. Emma Darcy and Consodine do a great job of the scene where she's begging him to save her and you can't tell if she's getting through to his drug addled mind, but it doesn't seem like it. And the next day poo poo is going real bad for the Blacks in the throne room and the Viserys comes to us at the turn of the tide and you can just see the defeat appear on the face of the Hightowers and allies. Just a fantastic sequence, and so unlike the heroic rescues we're used to in film and TV, though it was an act of heroism and gallantry as deep as any we've seen in fantasy. I know nothing I've said is revelatory or even particularly original, I just keep thinking about the whole thing and how watching a skeletal, bent old man drag himself across a room made me feel the same as I did watching the Ride of the Rohirrim or the Adama Maneuver.

Xiahou Dun posted:

Dressed a pig up as a dragon.

Aemond has not dressed up as pig at any point, sadly, even though it would be pretty great. At least not on screen. I guess we can hope going forward?

TheBizzness posted:

It’s pretty wild that “training” involves having a real Morningstar swung with full power at your head

TOOT BOOT posted:

I was actually thinking that too. If Aemond gets the upper hand he just stops short of actually cutting Sir Criston. Doesn't work that way with an iron ball on a chain. And they went out of their way to show that it had bone-shattering force behind it because it broke his shield.

ruddiger posted:

Honestly surprised a flying pig isn’t already on the banner of an ancient noble house in Westeros.

Rappaport posted:

Succession-dragon-crossover event when

TheBizzness posted:

It’s pretty wild that “training” involves having a real Morningstar swung with full power at your head

Roman Reigns posted:

Jerusalem posted:

Very minor thing, but I loved the consternation in King Goon's voice when he declares,"There we are then, it's settled.......................... again!"

Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:

this is extremely context sensitive and would def get you twitter-banned

Roman Reigns posted:

Eh, I thought so too. Edited just to be safe.