Cinepals - HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 2x2 Reaction & Review!

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

House of the Dragon has come back!  House Of The Dragon is the prequel to Game of Thrones. The story follows the House of Targaryen 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones. Starring Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Emma D'arcy, Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint and Eve Best. You can watch the cut down reaction to this movie (and many others) on our YouTube channel https://www.YouTube.com/@Cinepals and the full length reaction is available on our Patreon page https://www.Patreon.com/JabyKoay   SOCIAL MEDIA:  ~CINEPALS~ YouTube: @CinePals Insta: https://instagram.com/TheCinePals Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCinePals   ~ACHARA~ Twitter & Instagram: @Acharakirk YouTube: @Achara

Sinha. Pals. Welcome back, everybody. We are continuing forward with House of the Dragon, season two, episode two. Thanks so much. Here we go. Okay. Okay. I feel like this is going to lead to something.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. That's how it goes in the movies. in real life getting slapped is a good time to just walk away. Yeah, exactly. We're ending it there. You know, there was this moment

they cut out with Reinez and Damon when there was like Renaro was like, who would do, like, why would they blame me for doing this? I wouldn't do that. Like, that's like implausible. That's crazy to think that would do such a thing. There was a moment like in the editing that I thought was kind of funky

and I was like, why did they choose to do it that way? where Raynees looked at Damon and then there was a shot of him looking at her and the order of it was kind of weird where it's like that that to me would have probably maybe they wanted to cut out the implication which is Raynees knew something. Well, Raynees is sharp.

I think she knew immediately and so she just looked at him and was like, I see you. Yeah, but that moment that normally would come in a scene like that was removed for some reason and so I thought that was just peculiar that they took it out. but like you said she's sharp so maybe

maybe that's just like I guess a bonus thing like if you see it you see it if you don't you don't kind of thing yeah I caught it it was just like a quick look of like mm-hmm yeah yeah but I'm not gonna say anything yeah but I see you I know you I know who you are Damon yeah

the scene between Renera and Damon I thought was quite strong I liked I liked the acting in that scene a lot I wasn't as big of a fan of the way was shot but in the editing it's like it kind of threw me a little bit but I just I really like the performance a lot. Yeah, I think it was such a cool scene as well because, like, everything came out.

Yeah. You know, like, all of the thoughts and feelings that they've been having, like, literally, it all came out on the table. And it was just like, I see you for who you are. Like, for, I think for Reneira, it's like, I was a kid. I was a child when we got together. Yeah. And so I looked at you a certain way. And now I'm an adult.

and I'm just like, I realize, you know, this relationship isn't, I can't fix you, basically. And so, you know, it's like, this sucks. Yeah, the realization. Yeah, the realization was really good. And then him, you know, finally coming clean, I think, more or less. And more on the blocking, the scene with Masaria, what's her name? Yeah. The lady.

The spy lady. Yeah. I can't remember her name exactly. I think it is Masario. Something along those lines. Yeah, but she was with Renera, right? And in that entire scene, Renara's doing the one walking around and talking.

And then there was this like deliberate moment where she's like, okay, I have a card I'm going to play here. And then she walks up. And I was like, wow, like the blocking in this scene is fascinating because it's very classical in the way that it's structured. Yeah. You know, it's like the movement is not without purpose. Everything is designed a particular way

to inform something subconscious. like, okay, like first, Renera's walking around. She's the powerful character in the scene, right? And then when she walks up and she delivers this thing, it's like now she's got the power for that moment, enlightening Renara for that moment. And I thought that was really cool how they played that. Yeah, I thought it was just so interesting as well,

like how that plays into the bigger story of what we're watching here, which is just to me, I don't know if I'm right or wrong. It just kind of seems to be focusing a lot on. our main ladies, you know? And in a way, it's kind of like... The future's female bitches. Well, yeah, the future and the past is female bitches. But no, it's just kind of like how they're all kind of being played

or trying to become players in the situation. You know, like for the lady, Miss Saria or whatever variation of that is her name. But, you know, she, you know, She came and she had no agency. She had no power. She was a slave. And she was just trying to, well, maybe she wasn't a slave. But you know, you get what I mean, right?

Like she was, she had to do whatever she could to survive. And then she managed to better herself. But then in the end, it all gets burned down to the ground anyway. And so it's like, well, what can we do? How do we live? How do we help each other? So, yeah, it's just, it's just really interesting. In a way, I think Alicent and Reneira have also been played.

Missaria is her name, by the way. Missaria, yeah, so close. So, you know, they've also been played, and they're trying to become players. But there's only a certain way, I suppose, that women can become players in the kingdom. It's always like, either you have to have a man or in the case of Ranera. It's like she wants to be queen, she could be queen, but then it's been taken away from her. and given to a man. Yeah.

Yeah. And then now, I just, I'm so angry at So Kristen Cole. Like, I think in season one I was kind of enamored with him and, and like, I thought he was cute and, you know, he is easy on the eyes and all that and his relationship with Renera. But like, after that all kind of fell to shit, he's just become so awful. Oh, he's not taking accountability is what it comes down to. Yeah, he's trying to, he's trying to take control the situation and absolve himself of what is effectively his fault as well. He's just projecting everything on everyone.

Like him, his whole thing with Sir Eric coming in there and then, you know, he's all like, oh, you've sullied the white cloaks and blah, blah, blah. It's like, no, that's your guilt talking, dude. Like, you're the one. You should take a look at yourself before you go around, like, accusing other people and then sending them to their death. Because you know he knew that he would die. Yeah. But if he succeeded, then he would be causing even more drama in the kingdom and just driving them closer and closer to war. And it's just frustrating to see the king be like, yeah, now I'm going to make you my hand.

It's like, oh, my God, the stupidity. Well, with Kristen, you know, I think that for him, he had a certain idealistic way of looking at the world. Yeah. You know, he had his oath and his purity and all that stuff. And, you know, what happened between him and, um, um, Renera. Renara back in the day, you know, many years ago, it's almost like weeds that have infected a lawn, you know, it just gets everywhere and it hurts the whole thing.

You know, it's like a little bit of poison just eventually affects the entire water supply. And for him, it's like, that's what's happening. It seems like over the course of the show or it's, it's not, now he's getting more corrupted off of this like seed way back here. Yeah. You know, he's got so much hate for her now. And so now his actions are heinous when once he was this pure guy. Yeah.

You know. So I guess you could ask. Like, where does it begin? Where does the blame lie? Who knows? But he frustrates me so, so much. And especially now that, I mean, I don't know how serious Egon is about having him as a hand. But if he truly is going to be his right hand man, then, yeah, that's scary.

It's not going to go well at all. No. That's going to go to shit. But I don't see him being able to. I don't know. Maybe he's got the job to do it. Because, like, he's got experience in the field. So maybe that'll inform something.

It'll inform him making rash decisions about, like, how to start a war. Whereas, like, you know, say what you will about Otto Hightower. He's all about the long game. And it was kind of amazing to watch him turn this tragedy at the beginning of the episode and be like, okay, here's how we can play this hand that we've been dealt. Yeah. And have us come out on top. and it's going to suck, you know.

We're going to have to do things that feel gross and that we're not happy with, but it's going to get the people on our side. And not only that, when the other high families hear about this, it's going to get them on our side too. And then, of course, stupid Egon decides to just ruin everything.

I want to pivot and talk about that fight scene for a second. So I really like that fight a lot. I thought it was great. And the reason it was so cool is because, because it wasn't just a fight scene. It wasn't just like, I have to do this thing and this is in my way. There's like emotional stakes involved.

Yes. And I thought like that was such a loaded action scene. I thought that's one of the things that you strive for in cinema. You know, it's like there was so much going on there while having good action that it was perilous and it's like you and it hurt to watch. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Brother versus brother. Not only that, but they're twins too. And so there were like, it was so layered. And I'm like, this is fucking cinema to me. It's like, it's so strong, you know, because it's all too often you see fight scenes just for the sake of having action. It's like, but like there was so much involved in this. And because, you know, you have one guy who's trying to get to the queen to kill her.

And then you have the brother who's stopping him. And in the middle of it, he's like, I still love you. Yeah. That is so like, oh, it cuts deep, you know? No pun intended. No, totally. And I mean, and that's what made me so angry at Christ. because he knew exactly what he was asking him to do.

What did this guy ever do to deserve that, apart from just be a good soldier, you know, and apart from challenging him? I think that was it. He was mad because he had the audacity to point out the truth, which was like, okay, before you start pointing fingers, sir, and blaming other people for, like, where were you when, you know, the boy got murdered?

excuse me where were you people in glass houses shouldn't be throwing stones yeah and and so he was like okay well now that you've insulted me I'm gonna kill you yeah I feel like I feel like um Heath Ledger's Joker talked about this in the dark night it's like everyone I don't know I'm gonna totally terribly paraphrase it but it's something like any good person is one bad day from being a villain basically sure you know and because you know you think about Kristen and where he came from and he wanted to run away like he wanted to just throw this all away and be in love and whatever. Romantic.

Yeah. And Renera's like, no, I got a duty, but we can be secret lovers. He's like, nah, not into that. Not into that. And yeah, and so you kind of see just like the obsession with the purity and all of that can really kind of lead you to make some horrible decisions sometimes. Impure decisions. Yeah.

So I keep wanting to call her malaria. So, Visaria, you know, she saw the twin and she doubled back. and that never came back in the episode. That's true, yeah. I have expected her to come running in, but I think you're right. It's like, how would she have access? Maybe it was just sort of a little bit of a misdirection

on the part of the showrunners, the director, the writer, whatever, like to kind of make us think that that was involved somehow. But it's sort of like, it didn't really go anywhere. It was a scene, like if you cut that scene out,

it would have been the same thing. Right. I think also maybe they put it in there so that it helped the audience. Because in case, in case you didn't notice that the dude walking was the twin, she noticed for you so that you could go, oh shit, he's here. That's fair.

But, you know, we were watching out for it. That's fair. So, yeah. No, that's actually a really, really strong point. Maybe, maybe that's what happened. They also brought back the guy who saved Corliss and the... His name is Alan and his brother's name is Adam. Good for you.

Yeah. And the... Oh, how dare you? The blacksmith. I was just paying attention, okay? Yeah, good job. Yeah. Good job.

No, and the blacksmith. So. They named them both A names, by the way, which I thought was really shitty. It's like, why would you do that to me? It's like the names are so hard to keep up with. But the names, those names are like as close to normal as you can probably get in this show. That makes it worse. Allen and Adam.

Yeah. Yeah, no, but they brought them back. Well, Alan, right? They brought back Alan and they introduced Adam. Yes. And then they also. have the blacksmith, which we saw in the other episode, which, you know, they made a point of kind of showing them a little bit more in the first episode. So I was kind of like, okay,

how are they going to play a part? And so I wonder kind of how that is all going to play out. Like if they're going to switch sides at any point because of, you know, the tensions and everything in the Red Kee, also with Alan just kind of being quite reluctant to join Corliss in the fight. But I feel like they're going to become bigger. players for sure. So I have two shots in this episode that I loved. I thought were great. The first one was when Masaria and Renara were talking. And it's a profile shot on Masaria. Yeah. And then Renara walks past frame and then behind her. And it's like it's doing this rack focus thing back and forth between the two of them in their dialogue. I thought that was so beautifully done. As a shot choice by the director, the AC

pulling focus did a great job. I thought it was just really, really well executed. And then the other one was when Agon and Otto were talking. And Agon is like, you know, give him the badge. Give him the, you know. And so, you know, Otto's going on the end of his soapbox thing. And he reaches for the badge. And the camera dollies in on it, right?

And it's like, this is everything to him. It's everything. And then he has to remove. It's like, it's almost like cutting off a piece of himself. cutting off his own arm, right? I just thought it was a beautiful shot to like go in on it and really focus on that action and then like him pulling it off

and everything like that. I just thought it was nice. I love that scene as well because, you know, we finally see Otto talk to Egon as like just a guy as a grandfather and chastising the bad decisions of his grandson, who happens to be one of the most,

if not the most important person in the kingdom, Yeah. And I think... He forgot his place. Well, yeah, but also in episode one, he was really holding back. Remember, like, every time Egon would make a promise, and then he'd, like, walk up to the throne and then just be like, oh, whatever. I'll just walk back.

And I think it just got to a point where he was like, boy, you have made way too many stupid decisions, and I cannot stand around. And I'm going to use my relation to you as a family member to tell you. you off and I mean it didn't work out but I was just like I needed to hear that too like I needed him to tell him that because he's just he's being so dumb I wanted him to kind of like grab him and like just throw him over his knees and like spank him a bit you know yeah I get you it's interesting like all the back and forth because like there's all this effort there's things in this episode where it's like action was taken but almost went nowhere in a way yeah it's like

all that was lost was hearts in the process really like because you mean like in a video game I guess yeah exactly you know because there was this whole thing of like trying to pivot you know you had the death of this young boy it's like okay we're gonna take this action and a lot of time was spent on this scene yeah you know with the queen and the boy's mother going through the streets you know the last time we had a scene like that was with what's her name Circe Searcy getting you know food thrown on her and stuff and so shame exactly yeah so we had this whole scene to emphasize like

concurring favor from the people yeah right which is important which is very important yeah and so that scene was what five minutes of the episode and then in like 10 seconds it's all undone because you see all the rat catchers hanging yeah you know what I mean it's stupid stupid decisions stupid choice but he is impetuous and he doesn't think his actions through and he's just like okay an eye for an eye and since we can't we don't know who it was we'll just kill all of them it's like oh my god you don't deserve this And Hightower is like, Otto is, it's like all these efforts to basically vicariously give himself power just to have it removed from himself, you know?

Sure. I mean, I do think that while Otto Hightower, yes, he probably does enjoy the feeling of power that comes from being the hand and being able to, you know, control the king in a way. I do think ultimately big picture he does want the best for the kingdom. Also, the other failure in the episode was of course sending the twin off to go and try to execute

the other queen and that failed. That was impetuous and stupid. Like, whichever way it was going to end, it was always going to end badly. Like, the outcome that happened of twins killing each other, bad. If he had succeeded in killing Reneira, also bad.

Like, there's no good decision here. But, oh, one of the things that I did want to say, as I was watching the episode, the reason why I love this so much is because even though I am staunchly Team Black, like right now I am still Team Black all the way. However, the show does a really good job with the characters and the story that I'm so invested and so interested in everything that's going on that, like, while I don't agree with the High Towers and, like, Team Green, I'm also like, I get it though. And like I can give props to Otto Hightower when he's coming up with this plan and go, actually, that is a genius plan. You know, like that is really smart. And sometimes when I'm watching the show, I almost forget which team I'm rooting for because it's like just so well done, you know. You guys, thanks so much for hanging out.

Hopefully you enjoyed that. I'm Jabby Kui. This is Achara Cook. Peace out.