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House of the Dragon Episode 3 Review

The first scenes with Daemon on his Dragon, were what we should have seen in the original Game of Thrones, Beautiful and awe inspiring. It looked like a Dragon and his Rider, even to the point of showing the true Bonding when Daemon was hit Caraxes felt it and reacted as well. This scene felt and looked perfect.

Next we have a Two year time jump to the Kings new son, the Party was ongoing like anyone would have for their child, and we learn the Crab Feeder has been at it 3 years now. We get the typical yada yada do nothing from the lords… Seriously 3 years now and the King does nothing, and the excuse is because Daemond acted. BORING!

Then we get Rhaenyra, sitting under the Weirwood that Sansa clearly didn’t know about in the Godswood at Kings Landing. Then right in to a bumpy carriage ride and dialog that was forgettable. Princess Rhaenyra, definitely is starting to win me over as she is becoming more like her Uncle than her Father. But had I not written this down I would have forgot the scene as it was forgettable.

On to the hunt and the feasting tint, we get more people trying to Provoke Rhaenyra, doesn’t work but she gets her shot in to which I enjoyed. When she leaves, she does meet a Lannister, Jason, who pretty much says she will be his wife. She then goes to her father and they have a nice public fight. Again boring, we have seen this is other shows.

She rides off pissed off and The King-maker, I mean Ser Criston Cole heads off to save/stop her. We have an interesting conversation and then more boring eating.

Jason Lannister goes to the king wanting the Princess hand in marriage, I do believe we can see the King more than a little annoyed by this. Especially when he brings the king naming his son his heir.

I must admit when we finally see the King actually acting like a father and getting pissed about all the politics going on about marriages, I could actually feel for him and like him. His drinking you can see that it is all taking a Toll on him, but the final advises for her to Marry “Laenor Velaryon” you can see he takes it seriously.

Next we get a nice member-berry to Robert and the Bore, make no mistake this was what it was about.

Then back the King and this time with the Queen, she is almost as insufferable as Galadriel IMO. But we get the king drunker than Cooter Brown, questioning if he was wrong to name Rhaenyra his successor. Not a bad performance.

We finally get to the Kill part of the hunt. As a Sportsman, I found this sickening and distasteful. This is personal to me as I hate High Fence Hunts and that is what this scene was only worse. Where was the sportsmanship? The respect for the game and any dignity? I would guess this was Hollywood trying to play a PETA Moment… Well done you show how little you know of Hunts of the Past or even today. No true sportsman would ever condone this or be part of it. Congrats on making me hate the showrunners even More. I am glad Miguel the Activist is leaving.

The Next scene we see Princess Rhaenyra and the Kingmaker confront the real Stag of the hunt, she lets it go. Now this reminded me of several movies. The one that stands out most is from” The Queen” specifically “The Stag Scene. “Helen Mirren, as Elizabeth II, sits on a hill at Balmoral countryside. For those who have not seen this movie its worth it for just that scene.

On to the next act, Otto and the Queen conspiring already to make the Baby the next king, yup who cannot see this coming. The king comes in and we get them talking about Rhaenyra and her marriage. The conversation is obvious and clear about helping Daemon, and the king is sending aid.

The King and the Princess, This scene was great, truly great and believable acting, as such I will not spoil it, but of all the scenes with the King so far, This made me feel like he was both King and Father.

The Letter from the King scene, to say Daemon took it well is an Understatement, he took it like a Taragryen. And then we get more proof no one in this World can shoot arrows worth a damn. And finally when a couple miracle shots find him we are suppose to be shocked that his army is all the sudden there and that Laenor Velaryon has come in on Seasmoke, which looks a lot like Caraxes in many shots. Come on they were just talking about wanting to use Daemon for bait and he obliged them on his own.

And its over. Again the best I can say is “MEH” the writing is picking up at little, but still found myself board. In fact midway through I got up to do some things around the house and cook some food. This is just not a gripping your seat show. Better than Rings of Power yes. But nothing like Seasons 1-4 of Game of thrones.

I think Hollywood has forgot how to write good stories, and if it were not for Matt and his on screen power, I would have already checked out. But as there is really nothing else on TV and no one streaming on Youtube this early in the morning, it was something to watch.

Rating it a little higher because the writing for the King has picked up and Rhaenyra as well is getting better and of course Matt I mean Daemon. This one gets a (6).

Please no Meme’s, no linking to outside Content Creators etc. Put your Opinion and your words to this topic.

This is NOT Tolkien in any way shape or form.

The Lady Galadriel was NEVER “Xena Warrior Princess” Never Happened. Unrecognizable from anything from the works of Tolkien. The have written her and portraying her as “Angry, Young, Naive, Rough and Ready but more earthly and less godly” Oh yes, I saw that article. By this time she was thousands of years old and had already stood-up to her Uncle, one of the most powerful beings to ever live and tell him no, NOT ONCE but 3 times. Because she could look in the hears of people and see what kind of person they were.

The portrayal of all the Elves was so wrong, they looked like they could been plucked strait out of the Salons of Hollywood with the fresh hair cuts and make-up. Not once did any of them look like elves as described by Professor Tolkien.

The Dwarves were the bright point, well unless you want to stop and understand DWARF WOMEN HAVE BEARDS! And these did not. They sure did not look like Dwarfs as described, and Disa’s fake accent was just cringe worthy. The men did and the set looked OK and for a Billion-dollar show, set pieces should not just look ok.

Sauron, I mean Halbrand and Galadriel on the raft, I literally asked people with me where the child with the map on her back was! It looked so much like Water World; I asked that question.

The Meteor man, I mean Gandalf, was horrible. Did y’all notice the ground was red hot and yet we have Discount hobbits that are standing and sitting on it and no burns, no cloths catching fire from the extreme heat. And OMG the sign language from Discount Hobbit to Gandalf what! By the way, that is NOT how the wizards came to Middle Earth. That was a deliberate call back to the Comet from Game of Thrones.

I will not even get in to the Diversity and Inclusion, policy of Amazon’s that put character in this show that were and could not have ever been in Tolkien’s world. But I will point out in his own words why they cannon or should not be in this show.

From Letter 131 to Milton Waldmen
“I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of romantic fairy-story-the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendour from the vast backcloths – which I could dedicate simply to: to England; to my country. It should possess the tone and quality that I desired, somewhat cool and clear, be redolent of our ‘air’ (the clime and soil of the North West, meaning Britain and the hither parts of Europe: not Italy or the Aegean, still less the East), and, while possessing (if I could achieve it) the fair elusive beauty that some call Celtic (though it is rarely found in genuine ancient Celtic things), it should be ‘high’, purged of the gross, and fit for the more adult mind of a land long now steeped in poetry.” J. R. R. TOLKIEN.

Ladies and Gentlemen, what you watched from Amazon was NOT the works of Professor Tolkien, it was them using a name of a well known Movie, Author and Books to get you to tune and view a product that was inferior in every way. It was a Bait and Switch, as this had nothing to do with Tolkien except for the names of some of the characters. In fact id added many characters never in his books and certainly never described by him.

House of the Dragon Review.

Well, when you wake up and go to your favorite Island after a long night at sea and the local tavern has acquired a early copy of the New Show and you have a fresh cup of coffee, you might as well watch and see.

So First off we have a Narrative to tell you what we are going to see. The narrative is also very clear in the fact it is trying to separate itself from the original Game of Thrones.

Now I will say I liked Harrenhal, looked very much the description from the books. The narration was ok, nothing special, like I said making a point to separate this show from GOT. You know 172 years before.

Next we get to see a Dragon, If this show does anything right it is actually the look of the Historical Dragons of the Books. Syrax was Beautifully done and Princess Rhaenyra looked like a Targaryen. Beyond than she did not impress me as the Princess from the books.

Her Father, Viserys I Targaryen was very forgettable to me. They took the book Viserys and made him more a buffoon than anything else. Though he was not a Powerful man in description and in fact did not like conflicts and like to make people happy, the portrayal in the show has him really a lesser man.
The rest of the High Council was again very forgettable. Even Otto was just Meh.

As to Alicent Hightower, again a Meh performance and reminded me more of Missandei, than who Alicent should be. BTW Littlefinger jetpack has come in to play already as she is already making Bedroom advances to Viserys. Yes, it happens but damn talk about speeding things up. Could we have taken at least 2 maybe 3 episodes for it to happen.

Ok, the Bright Point Prince Daemon Targaryen, Now this was as close to the Books as you can get so far, and seeing Dark Sister was a treat. I find no fault in this adaptation of Daemon (so far).

The tournament, was ok I did like it and the way they actually made it seem like a true jousting and weapons fight. But again Daemon makes the scene.

Keeping this spoiler free, the scene with Viserys and Rhaenyra in front of the Skull of Balerion was not bad at all, but reminded me of “The Presidents book of Secrets.” Hate to say it but again very Meh.

There were also a few scenes that reminded me of the Pot Changing scene from G.O.T. at the Citadel. And I had the same reaction; WHY?

All in all. I have to rate this Episode a 5.5, there is just no way I can give it a higher rating. Had it not been for the Tournament and the Cinematography being excellent, I would have given this an even lower rating of a 3. Out of 10.

I must also address what will surely be on everyone’s lips (the race swap) Yes it happened. Why I can only imagine HBO like Amazon has some stupid racial and diversity policy in place. Because this was in NO way the best actor for the job. At least IMO, but there you have it, this is what happens when there is no reason for it other than probably some stupid policy. Worse there are plenty of races in This world and they can be used instead of doing it to a legacy character.

There are many people who do not understand why so many people are posting so much “Negativity” to these “teasers” So if you truly wish to know. Then continue reading. I will be citing Prof Tolkien’s own words from his letters.  If I have made any errors in this please feel free to reply where the error is and cite the source to verify it is incorrect.

Let us start with this; Directly from Amazon.

Weber praised The Rings of Power’s multicultural cast by referring to Sophia Nomvete’s portrayal of the dwarf Disa. “It felt only natural to us that an adaptation of Tolkien’s work would reflect what the world actually looks like,” she said. Nomvete is the first woman of color to play a dwarf in The Lord of the Rings.” – Lindsey Weber, E.P. Amazon’s LOTR Series, Vanity Fair (Feb. 2022).

In letter 210 to Forrest Ackerman, about the LOTR unmade film “The canons of narrative in any medium cannot be wholly different; and the failure of poor films is often precisely in exaggeration, and in the intrusion of unwarranted matter owing to not perceiving where the core of the original lies.”

But then we have these “teasers” and in them we see:

Black dwarfs

Female dwarfs without beards

Black queen Tar-Miriel

Black Elves

And we know they are adding Female Orcs.

Prof Tolkien was very was clear, he did not want people to remodel his world and where it’s drew upon for its source material. In letter 131 he is clear that his stories were of England specifically ancient England. With some sources certainly from Scandinavian and Germanic. Amazon has Inserted Racial diversity in to the casting. Which is a complete violation of his Cannon.

Letter 131: It should possess the tone and quality that I desired, somewhat cool and clear, be redolent of our ‘air’ (the clime and soil of the North West, meaning Britain and the hither parts of Europe: not Italy or the Aegean, still less the East)

As you can see there should be NO black dwarfs (let alone a female dwarf without a beard) “as they were indistinguishable from male dwarfs”. From “The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, “Durin’s Folk” also fully flushed out in Peter Jacksons LOTR. Furthermore, in Letter 188 he stated: “I wish to avoid a repetition of my experience with the Swedish translation of The Hobbit. I discovered that this had taken unwarranted liberties with the text and other details, without consultation or approval”

Queen Tar-Miriel as described by Prof Tolkien; ” Tar-Miriel the Queen, fairer than silver or ivory or pearls.” – The Silmarillion.

Ok now lest go on to Lady Galadriel. Warrior Galadriel, nope no way, In Professor Tolkien’s works the only time we ever know she fought was in the First Kinslaying. Yet in the trailer we see her all decked out in Armor and a Sword even a Scottish Highlander would have a hard time yielding let alone a woman. The trailers look like a rip off of Game of Thrones party north of the wall.

This is speculative on my part, but seems from the trailers we are going to get Battles, and probably for the pure spectacle of battle with Galadriel and Probably Tar-Miriel leading the charge. This is what Tolkien said about that: Again, from the 1958 Letter #210 “He has cut the parts of the story upon which its characteristic and peculiar tone principally depends, showing a preference for fights; and he has made no serious attempt to represent the heart of the tale adequately”

The Lady Galadriel did not fight in any First age Battles: “She had no role in the major wars of the First Age, believing that defeating Morgoth was beyond the power of the Eldar; when Morgoth was defeated by the coming of the Valar out of the West she, having played no part in the earlier Kinslaying, was offered safe return to Valinor. However, she chose not to leave Middle-earth, and was the only leader of the Ñoldor exiles to remain after the First Age.” = The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter XXIV: “Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath”

And then we have her and Elrond’s conversation. There is NO WAY he would ever talk to her that way. First, she is his Mother-in-law and Second, she is as powerful (speculatively more powerful) than Sauron who did fear her as his rival, she has been alive far longer than He (Elrond) being of the “Legendarium” YT 1362 where Elrond was born First age FA 532. That conversation I have heard from kids (yes you did, no you didn’t, yes you did, no you didn’t.) come on that was bad writing and directing to ever let that in a show, but then to rip of Disney’s “Kill the past.”

She would actually not even need a sword, as she had <Nenya> Forged 1500 of the Second age “Conscious of Sauron’s power, and wishing to thwart it, she did not use the powers of her ring as long as the One Ring was in Sauron’s hands. However, during the Third Age, when the One Ring was lost, she put it to good use protecting the borders of her realm, for the powers of her ring were protection, preservation, and concealment from evil. = Unfinished Tales, Part Two, Chapter IV: “The History of Galadriel and Celeborn”

Despite any wishes or wants, there is nothing in the works of Tolkien showing her fighting in battles in the Second Age either. She certainly would not need a Sword having in her possession Nenya. And there is Nothing in the timeline of the Second Age prior to Nenya being forged that would give Cannon to her fighting.

Yet I am also compelled to point out he did not Like a “DARK Outlooks” and Battles and Wars or even dark stories he was against. In letter 64 “I sometimes feel appalled at the thought of the sum total of human misery all over the world at the present moment: the millions parted, fretting, wasting in unprofitable days — quite apart from torture, pain, death, bereavement injustice. If anguish were visible, almost the whole of this benighted planet would be enveloped in a dense dark vapour, shrouded from the amazed vision of the heavens!”

The show runners, themselves and directors. Another of his complaints is from in Letter 190, where expresses his feeling on how he would feel, even in the hands of a “competent person” yet in the case of Amazon’s Show Runners resumes are sparse at best. Did Amazon assigned two people to run the show who have no credentials to “remodel” his works to their “fancy.” Letter 190: In principle I object as strongly as is possible to the ‘translation’ of the nomenclature at all (even by a competent person). I wonder why a translator should think himself called on or entitled to do any such thing. That this is an ‘imaginary’ world does not give him any right to remodel it according to his fancy.

Again, I point out the first point By Amazon: “It felt only natural to us that an adaptation of Tolkien’s work would reflect what the world actually looks like.” Amazon and clearly the Show runners are going against what Tolkien himself would have never approved of.

I would be remise if I did not also point out, that they had working for them Tom Shippey, one of the most Knowledgeable Tolkien scholars, until they fired him. Their reasoning by reports was he broke his NDA in an interview. However, more and more sources are stating, this it was because Shippey was protesting what was being done “polluting the lore.” <Source>= Bounding in to Comics.

Poor Production issues just in these teasers are glaring. Boob Armor and even T-SHIRT Armor” ON Tar-Miriel <yes, my friends you can clearly see T-shirt printed armor.> With a budget of over 500 million with projections having it as high as a Billion and that is what Amazon is giving us?

We also have Galadriel in what makes her look like she jumped in to a Giant bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos. “Harfoots”, or as I like to call them Penguin People because clearly, they cannot walk in those prosthetic feet. How was it we had the Hobbits with their feet having no problems even Charging in to Battle running. Yet these show runners and editors allow Penguins to be seen on film.

So when Amazon and its schills in the media try to use their typical “Ist and Isms and phobias” to try tell people everyone pointing out the glowing flaws are wrong, or why they are so mad about this, do not be fooled by their excuses and lies. You can simply type in the search menu above (Prime Video, and pick a country) you will see the truth, in the downvotes.

Yes you can actually see a representation of them, because as with comments it appears Dislikes keep disappearing as well. But to see them just get the <Google Chrome Extension called> “Return YouTube Dislike” As of the time of this post the current numbers for Prime Video USA is 250,481 Dislikes and 65,266 likes.

Amazon angered the wrong fan base….. One that loves the works of Prof Tolkien. The truly sad part is, they have all the works of Prof Tolkien, and all they needed to do was STICK TO THEM.  Instead, they hired people lacking the skill and knowledge to pull this off, and then decided to go with against all the wishes of Tolkien, and clearly an Enormous Number of his fans. You only need to get the Google Chrome Extension to see the Dislikes again to see that is true.

Fans as it appears by Many other Dislike to Like ration on this video are not happy with Amazons handling of Prof Tolkien’s works. But also, if you search videos on social media platforms and even now showing in print the distain for what Amazon is doing.

It is not because any excuses Amazon or the Schill media will try and say, as it Transends race, creed, color, wealth, religion, sex or politics. It is because the fans are sick and tired of Production companies inserting Their political and social agenda in to the works and cannon of beloved stories and properties. They may buy them and then say it is their property, but it is not. It is OUR Property, all they have is the rights to tell the story as written within cannon source.

The saddest part of this, maybe more so than others, they have all the finished works to draw from, they have many people they could have brought in (had probably the best but fired him) to make sure they told the story as Prof Tolkien would have wanted. They even had his letters on what he would not have wanted.

Yet they just had to bring in the {Check the Boxes crew} They had to have Diversity and Inclusion and I am certain we will have other Political messages of todays world, they as much as said so.

When I first heard about Amazon acquiring the rights to make this, my initial thoughts were of the great stories that could be told. I had high hopes that this could surpass Peter Jacksons Lord of the Rings, that this would have a budget that would make Tolkien’s world come to life and I again like when I was a child seeing the Animated Hobbit 45+ years ago I had daydreams of Middle Earth and was happy that I would have something to share with Family and Friends we loved.

But then the stories of what Amazon was doing started to circulate, then the articles with their own words and finally these teasers. This is NOT and CANNOT be the world of Prof J.R.R. Tolkien, not when Amazon admits they are making it for “Today’s world” and the violation of Tolkien’s words and wishes are so clear. Had Amazon wanted to make a Fantasy adventure, they have the money for it. There is no need or reason to destroy the works of the Great Professor.

I leave you with letter 210: “I do earnestly hope that in the assignment of actual speeches to the characters they will be represented as I have presented them: in style and sentiment. I should resent perversion of the characters (and do resent it, so far as it appears in this sketch) even more than the spoiling of the plot and scenery”

This is what all Movies or TV Series should aspire to be like, This was great story with characters who were flawed and human they made mistakes some died some lived.

It did not have any Agenda Politics, No ticking the boxes for race, color, sex and certainly no Mary-sue. Take note Hollywood, without those things we got a great story that took us away from reality and invested us in all of them, because of who they were, not what we had shoved down our throat by you.

I do not want to spoil it, any of it, but I laughed and cried even in this final season, I was surprised by things that happened. It had redemption, it had finality and it wrapped up the story lines even if some of them tore our heart out while others made us smile with pleasure and joy.

I will say this, The final scene you had better have some tissue near by because your house I am sure is full of onions when it happens. This is the ending Game of Thrones could and should have done. It was the true definition of “Bitter Sweet”

The season overall was a 9.9 only missing a perfect 10 because of S5-E1 it was a 9.0…. I watched it now twice letting it sink in fully. Giving anything a 10 is hard almost impossible, but episodes 2 through 10 were PERFECT 10’s for me.