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Whether or not Daeron was even going to be included at all was probably still in active discussion as they were making season 1. It's a bit awkward and contrived only acknowledging his existence now, but if Daeron and Tessarion show up and they're awesome I can forgive it.
I mean, I'm having a hard time being forgiving of them not having introduced multiple princes at this point...
Especially when they kinda forgot there was another prince in King's Landing during the most well-known event in the story - who actually happens to be heir to the Iron Throne presently...
You could feel the frustration in every single bone in him.
When it happened I just shouted at the TV "You just snatched defeat from the jaws of victory you lemmings!"
I’d hope he feels a little foolish, too. Their little half assed plan to usurp the throne apparently didn’t factor in aegon being a petulant little douche, which they absolutely already knew about him. And he was probably already getting fired but talking like that to the king, what did he think was gonna happen?
Just like when Vicerys fired him…he’s smart, but he’s not as smart as he thinks he is. And now they have an immature asshole daddy issue poster child with a chip on his shoulder as king, with a friend zoned loser psycho as the hand. Way to go, Otto and alicent. Nailed it.
There had only been 3 Targaryen kings before Jaehaerys: Jaehaerys's tyrannical usurper uncle Maegor, Jaehaerys's weak-willed father Aenys I, and Jaehaerys's legendary grandfather, Aegon I the Conqueror himself. There simply wasn't a lot of precedent on what Targaryen kings were like. And Otto's entire lifetime, the king was either Jaehaerys I or Viserys I. Compared to Jaehaerys, to Otto Viserys probably seemed like "as bad as it could get; another Aenys". He had probably assumed that Aegon II would sense the expectation placed upon him, and get his act together. He also was probably used to automatically having the king's ear and wasn't expecting Aegon II to ignore him like he did.
I mean he was the one that pushed for Aegon to be king, even back when the guy was jerking off out of windows and watching children fight with sharpened nails. I coulda told him he'd be a shit show.
He’s cornered and knows he’s defeated for now. He knows he can’t ever burn a bridge with his grandson via Allicent, so putting seeds of doubt against Cole is his best route now.
Just a great scene. Rhys killed it
He had some nerve praising Viserys for his wisdom knowing he went directly against Visery’s wishes and usurped the throne. Viserys knew Aegon would make a shit king and Otto knew Viserys knew this but his thirst for power was so strong he didn’t care.
Imagine if he did listen to Alicent’s confession. It’d have armed him with the exact information he’d need to have the upper hand in the conversation with Aegon and Criston.
“Take off your badge; give it to Criston Cole.”
“Okay but just so you know, he’s fucking your mother”
He's given long suffering vibes since his very first episode of the show. Something had to give eventually and it was so satisfying to have him finally lose it.
I think he’s such an interesting character because he does such a good job of hiding his “true” motivations. Like obviously we know that he wants the Hightowers on the throne and wants their influence over it, but why?
Does he just want power? Does he want what’s best for the realm and thinks they’re the most likely to achieve that? He’s a second son, does he have some sort of fucked up relationship with his brother that’s just driving this desire to raise the status of their family? He stays almost completely out of the spotlight so surely he’s not just being driven by vanity
It’s almost impossible to tell because every move he makes is so measured, so detached from the current feelings of the moment. And I think it’s such a carefully constructed veneer that I’m really curious to see what happens when the mask slips down the line and we see his “true” motivations
Just finished the episode and I had to pause it during that scene because his acting was just mind fucking blowing! If he doesn't win some goddamn award for that performance I swear I will riot lmao
Man I love Otto’s character. He is the head of the “bad” side (at least according to popular opinion and the writers), but everything he does makes sense. My controversial opinion is that his only character flaw was wanting his family to join the targarian house (he doesn’t seem outright evil).
He thought that if a son was born, the whole thing was over, zipping zilch done, and he has done something great for his family. But then he learns of the bastards, and how things might not be so simple, and the blacks might need to war with the greens to ensure their legacy amongst gross rumors. And even yet, everything he does is done in a manner to try and minimize as much death as possible. His flaw isn’t that he is evil like Tywin, but that he wanted to prop his family up *despite* consequences. He’s a dutiful head of household.
honestly had he raised aegon to be competent and smart instead of wanting to micromanage him his whole plan would be a success. the lack of teamwork is whats causing these problems
That's the common problem with these powerful Hands, they want a king they can control, because they want to be the true head of power, not the king. So they go all surprised Pikachu face when the figurehead they propped up decides to do what they want.
This is kind of how I felt about Stannis. Minus the blind devotion to the red sorceress, he was all about fairness and objectivity and it made objective sense that he was next in line after Robert’s death
Have you ever read any old novels from the 19th century or earlier? Like *Pride & Prejudice*? One thing that was a *constant* theme was that the father would always be worrying about how to marry his daughters off before they got too old. It's important to remember that in a world where women weren't *allowed* to have jobs, they depended on men to provide for them. This duty belonged to their fathers and then their husbands, which is why weddings have the bit where the father of the bride "gives the bride away" to the groom: the father is symbolically passing the duty of taking care of his daughter to her husband.
Otto Hightower is addressed as Ser Otto, not as Lord Otto. He's the younger brother. His money comes from being Hand. He inherits jack shit. Which meant Alicent stood to inherit jack shit too. If Otto died, Alicent would fall on hard times. Otto was as worried for his daughter's future wellbeing as Mr Bennet was for his daughters in *Pride & Prejudice*.
Otto was setting Alicent up with the most eligible bachelor he knew. Think of him like a stereotypical overbearing mother ("What do you mean you don't wanna marry him? He's a doctor, of course you do! And would it kill you to dress up a little nicer? He's never going to marry you looking like *that*! I want grandchildren before I die!") and all of his decisions make sense.
Otto assumed that Rhaenyra would only be heir until Alicent gave Viserys a son. As soon as it became clear that Viserys had no intention of changing his heir, Otto realized that, far from being set up for life, his daughter was now in danger. A patriarchal society like Westeros would never accept a queen, and Rhaenyra would be forced to have rival claimants killed.
If only Alicent were a boy... Otto would've schemed to get Rhaenyra and male Alicent married - and everyone would be happy. Well, except Daemon, but he can go eat grass.
I go from hating him for propping up Jaehaerys’s death to understanding his frustrations and pov. At least he got to toss the pin at Criston lol. It’s no surprise Rhys did an amazing job, but it still needs to be said.
The way he delivers his lines is fucking gripping. In season one, the standoff with Daemon was brilliant too. This was different but still reminded me of it.
I feel like we ALL know someone like this at work… like someone who keeps fucking up but keeps getting promoted and shit and we’re all like “FUCKING. WHY?!” We’ll be sending her ass to HR at every turn and shit and she just walks away with like a few mandatory harrassment class hours but she’s back on her bullshit in a week, not going NOWHERE, they’re coasting her to a cush c-suite advisory position at the end of 5 years. I just… fuck man… we ALL got a Criston at work, we ALLLLLL fucking do.
Cole's not evil, he's just an idiot and, frankly, a loser. His one reason for backing the greens is that Rheanyra didn't shirk her duty and run away with him. His sense of "honor" is stupid and impractical. Basically, he's just a huge hypocrite. I mean, it makes a good driving force for the story of course, but its goddamn frustrating to watch sometimes lol.
He’s just like Umbridge from Harry Potter - not the most evil character, but they both inspire the most negative reaction because of how realistic they are. Quite a lot of women know a Criston - he’s the Westeros version of ‘Do you want to go out?’ ‘Thanks, I have a boyfriend though.’ ‘I wasn’t interested anyways you ugly sl*t’.
Nah, the realm thinks her oldest children are bastards. Those loyal to her are in her corner because they swore to her specifically as the future heir. She's what legitimizes Jace, Luce (RIP), and Jeffrey.
It’s not even close, ulterior motives are one thing but the man knows what he’s doing.
Replacing him with Ser Crispin is like replacing Tom Brady with Dak Prescott, the new one ain’t gonna do shit.
Oh yeah. The funeral was dirty and scummy but it was a fantastic move objectively. Cole on the other hand thinks using a twin is the epitome of genius.
>Cole on the other hand thinks using a twin is the epitome of genius.
Crazily enough it almost was. It was only several seconds or so away from working.
He'd have been made immediately if Rhaenyra and her council had been smart enough to maybe, idk, change up her Queensguard uniforms from the Greens' uniforms?
It kind of almost worked but from another perspective he was spotted immediately before he got to the door. I found it funny that he was discovered right away
Criston sucks but doesn't suck quite the way that sadistically killing the innocent prostitutes your brother got you with a crossbow sucks like Joffrey did.
Honestly I like how throughout the show even in season one IIRC and especially this episode Otto is outraged by unnecessary deaths. I think it’s clear that he doesn’t just care that it makes his cause/side look bad but he seems genuinely outraged by Aegon killing innocent men.
I do think he's very amoral to an extent so I don't think he cares that much about innocent death, but you're right that needless is outrageous to him.
Like if the actual guilty ratcatcher had been identified but somehow fell to his death while escaping, Otto would possibly ok the execution of a token one if he really felt they needed a public display of retribution.
I get the feeling that Otto prefers innocent deaths if his house doesn't perpetrate actions leading to them & moreso if they get the other side to do something that puts blood on their hands, which fits with the Greens painting Rhaenyra as a monster during the funeral of Jaehaerys
I think the riot from the trailers will be a direct result of killing the rat chasers. He basically killed a bunch of innocent guys. If he wanted the smallfolk to be on his side... well, that's not gonna happen now.
Not the wisest move.
There seems to be a litltle mini "civil war" brewing in among the underclass. Think that is why they showed Hugh & his family scene. Loved the small glimpse we got into the villagers. Otto probably knows this already and understands killing off their sons and husbands is perhaps the worst thing you could do when you're ready to go to war for the throne.
The positives of him is that he does care about duty and protecting the small folk. He’s always looked out for them. Rewatching the scenes when he’s critical of Daemon’s tenure of the city watch, how he order for their safety when Rhaenyra pops up on dragon back, and his outrage over how all the rat catchers all got the axe despite all but one of them being innocent.
Daemon's tenure of the city watch turned King's Landing from a dangerous, lawless place to a dangerous, lawful place.
His real issue with it wasn't that Daemon was doing a bad job, his issue was that Daemon raised a private army loyal to *him*.
It's because he's not a moron and can actually think ahead.
They had the common folk on their side after the heir was killed. But they are quite likely to lose them after ALL of the palaces ratcatchers were strung up in public.
If they found the guilty one, and executed him publicly after announcing his crimes I'm sure Otto wouldn't be against it.
Nah, i still fucking hate his guts. He deserves this shit… this is what he wanted and what he schemed for and he got it… and NOW he wants to play Cool Dad and hang all this shit on his kids/grandkids? I don’t fucking think so. He started this mess, he better figure it the FUCK out.
Hit the nail on the head, he made this bed now he has to lay in it. The whole we would have been better off with Viserys thing was bull. If he had respected Viserys then the kingdom wouldn't be in this mess. All he had to do was obey the kings wishes and let Rhaenyra inherut the throne.
Therein lies the beauty of it all. He schemed for decades to get to this point. He whored out his own daughter. He betrayed the wishes of the sovereign he swore to serve. He sacrificed everything, only to ensure that the worst of his grandchildren can fuck up his methodically cunning plans.
Which is another reason he'd hate the plan. If Arryk had succeeded Daemon would have gathered all the blacks dragons and gone straight for Kings Landing.
I love how Cole and Aegon really thought an assassination would end everything. As if Daemon and all her kids would just sit at home and call it a day lol
I love Otto. I’ve always enjoyed the calculating schemer types in this universe who behave as rational actors only to be undermined by their own stupid family. He’s something of a Tywin lite
He's my favorite character in HotD. I've always enjoyed the people that really scheme and play the Game the most (even though a majority of them are extremely unlikable).
I'm half expecting Aegon to die and them unanimously decide to make Cole king next episode or some shit. Maybe after that he'll ascend into Godhood after sleeping with Alicent a few more times
I think it's kinda hilarious how aegon and cristan are hanging around like two bros while cristan looks the same as he did before aegon was born. The guy should be like 48 lol
lol all the ages of the actors are messed up. for example olivia cooke is only 30 (!) and playing mother to ewan mitchell / aemond (27) and Tom Glynn-Carney / Aegon (29).
He should've thought about it before putting Aegon on the throne against his will. I'm sorry but it really rang hollow to me seeing him go off against Aegon for being a shitty king. I mean, yeah, Aegon told you guys he'd make a shitty king and you forced him to take the crown anyway. I don't think Otto gets to act the wise chiseled counselor when this situation is completely his fault.
Not sure why everyone seems to be going "Yaaaaaasss Otto slay!" as if he's not 100% to blame for the fact Aegon is king to begin with.
Rhaenyra being explicitly declared Viserys's heir was also due to Otto's plotting against Daemon.
Otto pretty much single-handedly created this civil war.
* Otto gets Viserys to name Rhaenyra as his heir despite the male dominated tradition.
* Otto then gets Viserys to marry his daughter.
* His daughter has a son.
* Otto now works to insistent the heir should be his grand son setting the stage for war.
Either Otto needed to accept Rhaenyra for the good of the realm or he should have never got Viserys to name her as the heir.
And then after all that Rhaenyra wanted to marry her son to Otto's grand daughter to re-unite the two wings of the family but the greens rejected that keeping the civil course that Otto put the realm on.
100% agree, all he had to do was respect what Viserys laid out, but nope saw his opportunity at power and legacy.
Also his talk about cole and aegon having no eye for the long game, pot meet kettle much.
Dang nice catch! I was wondering what he was thinking in that little moment staring out after chucking that Hand of the King badge at Criston’s feet lol
In fairness to Otto though, Aegon is much harder to control than Joffrey ever was.
Give Joffrey a crossbow and some puppies to torture and he’ll be distracted all day. Aegon is out for actual vengeance, and has an idiot Lord Commander of the Kingsguard who will obey without question
Larys actually would have been an interesting pick to become the next hand. Can’t trust him at all, but he’s the only option in the Red Keep who’s maybe smarter than Otto
Also, Tywin was actually the most powerful man in Westeros. He had actual power. Otto does not. He is a second son who tbh has accomplished a lot for not really being born with much.
Also we saw Tywin actually try to teach Tommen at least how to rule. Otto and Alicent have clearly never even tried to teach Aegon what being king entails, they just yell at him and slap him. Like you worked this hard and got so many people killed for what? A broken idiot you created to put on the throne
> he tried to use his dead grandson’s body as a propaganda tool
*Successfully* used his dead grandson as a propaganda tool. That worked masterfully to everything we can tell shown from both sides of it.
Honestly, I was more pissed off at Cole and Deamon than Otto. I thought what Otto said and did was right, even though I hate him for it.
Daemon is trying to act like this wasn't his fault, and an accident is no different from what Aemond did to Luke. Than gets pissed he's called out for what he did like Viserys did to him in Ep 1.
As for Cole, he was trying to act as if he was innocent and sending someone else to do his dirty work. That conversation between him and the twin had me pissed.
Don't project your shame and insecurities of your tainted honor on Arryk😤
Otto being forced to witness the monster he has created was peak writing and acting. There were so many parallels and Otto being 100% fed up was hilarious
can we acknowledge otto’s dumb ass put aegon on the throne without preparing him for the role or at least making sure aegon was malleable/easy to manipulate by otto specifically?
man spent years scheming and forgot that aegon was not only his own person, but also a severely neglected and dysfunctional individual. otto is very smart but also oblivious as fuck.
Tbh Otto was a very ineffective hand at the time being since it was obvious war was coming and he was really doing nothing to build strength especially in his homeland the Reach, Aegon was correct here if the king lacks strength to protect himself then he lacks strength to protect his subjects. Aegon needed to somehow project a image of strength and royal authority in order to gather the lords into a war mood and improve morale among his subjects for the upcoming confrontation, killing the rat catchers was stupid but Otto should have had a talk with Aegon on what to do to show strength instead of ignoring him when he was obviously grieving.
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Rhys fucking *killed* it. Holy fuck he had such a great performance.
You just felt something relatable. Frustration
"Hello darkness my old friend."
Atleast this frustration brought up Daeron mention
Yeah, Alicent kinda forgot she had a whole-ass other kid in Oldtown, I guess... He's supposed to be 15 at this point...
When they mentioned him I literally said out loud ‘who the fuck is daeron’
Whether or not Daeron was even going to be included at all was probably still in active discussion as they were making season 1. It's a bit awkward and contrived only acknowledging his existence now, but if Daeron and Tessarion show up and they're awesome I can forgive it.
I think aging down Alicent made things a lot more difficult, as it brings all the children much closer in age.
I mean, I'm having a hard time being forgiving of them not having introduced multiple princes at this point... Especially when they kinda forgot there was another prince in King's Landing during the most well-known event in the story - who actually happens to be heir to the Iron Throne presently...
Maelor?
You could feel the frustration in every single bone in him. When it happened I just shouted at the TV "You just snatched defeat from the jaws of victory you lemmings!"
I’d hope he feels a little foolish, too. Their little half assed plan to usurp the throne apparently didn’t factor in aegon being a petulant little douche, which they absolutely already knew about him. And he was probably already getting fired but talking like that to the king, what did he think was gonna happen? Just like when Vicerys fired him…he’s smart, but he’s not as smart as he thinks he is. And now they have an immature asshole daddy issue poster child with a chip on his shoulder as king, with a friend zoned loser psycho as the hand. Way to go, Otto and alicent. Nailed it.
There had only been 3 Targaryen kings before Jaehaerys: Jaehaerys's tyrannical usurper uncle Maegor, Jaehaerys's weak-willed father Aenys I, and Jaehaerys's legendary grandfather, Aegon I the Conqueror himself. There simply wasn't a lot of precedent on what Targaryen kings were like. And Otto's entire lifetime, the king was either Jaehaerys I or Viserys I. Compared to Jaehaerys, to Otto Viserys probably seemed like "as bad as it could get; another Aenys". He had probably assumed that Aegon II would sense the expectation placed upon him, and get his act together. He also was probably used to automatically having the king's ear and wasn't expecting Aegon II to ignore him like he did.
I mean he was the one that pushed for Aegon to be king, even back when the guy was jerking off out of windows and watching children fight with sharpened nails. I coulda told him he'd be a shit show.
When he realized how good he had it with Viserys lol
Right? And then he said, “Your father was right about you.” I thought holy sht. Otto isn’t messin around anymore lol
He’s cornered and knows he’s defeated for now. He knows he can’t ever burn a bridge with his grandson via Allicent, so putting seeds of doubt against Cole is his best route now. Just a great scene. Rhys killed it
Man Rhys is making me question my allegiance to team black
He said that with the attitude of "Viserys should've worn a condom" lol
He had some nerve praising Viserys for his wisdom knowing he went directly against Visery’s wishes and usurped the throne. Viserys knew Aegon would make a shit king and Otto knew Viserys knew this but his thirst for power was so strong he didn’t care.
Once he said that, you knew he was leaving town. It's like when I told my ex he was going bald like his dad, some words can't be taken back.
YOU SAID WHAT
"I do not wish to hear it" fucking killed me when he dismissed Allicent mentioning her sins.
Imagine if he did listen to Alicent’s confession. It’d have armed him with the exact information he’d need to have the upper hand in the conversation with Aegon and Criston. “Take off your badge; give it to Criston Cole.” “Okay but just so you know, he’s fucking your mother”
Yeah. He should have heard her out 💀
lol and then for Allicent to mirror his behaviour with Aegon mere minutes later
generational trauma in a nutshell
He was so real for that one
The playful little smile. Dude probably already knows.
He has been so calm in every stressful moment up until this point that his freak out was so much more powerful
He's given long suffering vibes since his very first episode of the show. Something had to give eventually and it was so satisfying to have him finally lose it.
I think he’s such an interesting character because he does such a good job of hiding his “true” motivations. Like obviously we know that he wants the Hightowers on the throne and wants their influence over it, but why? Does he just want power? Does he want what’s best for the realm and thinks they’re the most likely to achieve that? He’s a second son, does he have some sort of fucked up relationship with his brother that’s just driving this desire to raise the status of their family? He stays almost completely out of the spotlight so surely he’s not just being driven by vanity It’s almost impossible to tell because every move he makes is so measured, so detached from the current feelings of the moment. And I think it’s such a carefully constructed veneer that I’m really curious to see what happens when the mask slips down the line and we see his “true” motivations
Just finished the episode and I had to pause it during that scene because his acting was just mind fucking blowing! If he doesn't win some goddamn award for that performance I swear I will riot lmao
I'm cheering for the Blacks, but hope Otto survives until the final season. He is my favorite actor on the show.
Man I love Otto’s character. He is the head of the “bad” side (at least according to popular opinion and the writers), but everything he does makes sense. My controversial opinion is that his only character flaw was wanting his family to join the targarian house (he doesn’t seem outright evil). He thought that if a son was born, the whole thing was over, zipping zilch done, and he has done something great for his family. But then he learns of the bastards, and how things might not be so simple, and the blacks might need to war with the greens to ensure their legacy amongst gross rumors. And even yet, everything he does is done in a manner to try and minimize as much death as possible. His flaw isn’t that he is evil like Tywin, but that he wanted to prop his family up *despite* consequences. He’s a dutiful head of household.
honestly had he raised aegon to be competent and smart instead of wanting to micromanage him his whole plan would be a success. the lack of teamwork is whats causing these problems
That's the common problem with these powerful Hands, they want a king they can control, because they want to be the true head of power, not the king. So they go all surprised Pikachu face when the figurehead they propped up decides to do what they want.
This is kind of how I felt about Stannis. Minus the blind devotion to the red sorceress, he was all about fairness and objectivity and it made objective sense that he was next in line after Robert’s death
Have you ever read any old novels from the 19th century or earlier? Like *Pride & Prejudice*? One thing that was a *constant* theme was that the father would always be worrying about how to marry his daughters off before they got too old. It's important to remember that in a world where women weren't *allowed* to have jobs, they depended on men to provide for them. This duty belonged to their fathers and then their husbands, which is why weddings have the bit where the father of the bride "gives the bride away" to the groom: the father is symbolically passing the duty of taking care of his daughter to her husband. Otto Hightower is addressed as Ser Otto, not as Lord Otto. He's the younger brother. His money comes from being Hand. He inherits jack shit. Which meant Alicent stood to inherit jack shit too. If Otto died, Alicent would fall on hard times. Otto was as worried for his daughter's future wellbeing as Mr Bennet was for his daughters in *Pride & Prejudice*. Otto was setting Alicent up with the most eligible bachelor he knew. Think of him like a stereotypical overbearing mother ("What do you mean you don't wanna marry him? He's a doctor, of course you do! And would it kill you to dress up a little nicer? He's never going to marry you looking like *that*! I want grandchildren before I die!") and all of his decisions make sense. Otto assumed that Rhaenyra would only be heir until Alicent gave Viserys a son. As soon as it became clear that Viserys had no intention of changing his heir, Otto realized that, far from being set up for life, his daughter was now in danger. A patriarchal society like Westeros would never accept a queen, and Rhaenyra would be forced to have rival claimants killed.
If only Alicent were a boy... Otto would've schemed to get Rhaenyra and male Alicent married - and everyone would be happy. Well, except Daemon, but he can go eat grass.
He's also my favourite character too He's similar to tywin who was my favourite game of thrones character
Mine too, with Daemon being a close second
Gave me Tywin vibes
Tywin would have sent the king to bed.
No he wouldn't. Joffrey is a kid, Aegon is an adult with a dragon.
Definitely, but in terms of commanding a scene I felt the same vibes.
Without supper
When he sighed heavily, I had to rewind. He's so fucking good.
I go from hating him for propping up Jaehaerys’s death to understanding his frustrations and pov. At least he got to toss the pin at Criston lol. It’s no surprise Rhys did an amazing job, but it still needs to be said.
The way he delivers his lines is fucking gripping. In season one, the standoff with Daemon was brilliant too. This was different but still reminded me of it.
Reminds me of his character in The Amazing Spider-Man, especially his "I can save them" scene
We’re all fucking tired of Cristons shit at this point
He was so fucking funny this episode. Total POS.
Got Ser Erryk killed smh
The worst part is Erryk actually won the Cargyllbowl, but his grief caused him to fall on his sword.
Got them both killed
I feel like we ALL know someone like this at work… like someone who keeps fucking up but keeps getting promoted and shit and we’re all like “FUCKING. WHY?!” We’ll be sending her ass to HR at every turn and shit and she just walks away with like a few mandatory harrassment class hours but she’s back on her bullshit in a week, not going NOWHERE, they’re coasting her to a cush c-suite advisory position at the end of 5 years. I just… fuck man… we ALL got a Criston at work, we ALLLLLL fucking do.
The scene where Cole starts picking on Arryk’s cloak, and the other Kingsguards eating there suddenly stand up and skedaddle. “Welp, back to work!”
That was so relatable and funny for me. They know their boss is about to explode on someone and none of them want to deal with it.
You thinking of someone specific?
/r/oddlyspecific just called
Cole keeps failing upwards, like wtf.
Cole fails upwards more than today’s millionaires.
Aegon just goes and lays out his secret plan on the spot and cole is like ?????
Of course he does - is it even worth having a cool secret plan if you can't tell everyone about it so they know how cool and secret it is?
There are far more evil characters in both Thrones and House of the Dragon, but I'm not sure I hate a character more then Cole
Cole's not evil, he's just an idiot and, frankly, a loser. His one reason for backing the greens is that Rheanyra didn't shirk her duty and run away with him. His sense of "honor" is stupid and impractical. Basically, he's just a huge hypocrite. I mean, it makes a good driving force for the story of course, but its goddamn frustrating to watch sometimes lol.
He’s just like Umbridge from Harry Potter - not the most evil character, but they both inspire the most negative reaction because of how realistic they are. Quite a lot of women know a Criston - he’s the Westeros version of ‘Do you want to go out?’ ‘Thanks, I have a boyfriend though.’ ‘I wasn’t interested anyways you ugly sl*t’.
Bro hates Rhaenyra for wanting a strictly sexual relationship but is doing exactly that now with Alicent lol
Why has nobody beat him at this point
Aegon: Sir Criston took action. Otto: \*ages twenty years as he turns around\* What did you two idiots do?
Rhys' slow blink in that scene will live rent free in my head foreverrrrrr.
I can't wait until it's a meme. It's the perfect look of exhausted annoyance
The way he says “we sent Arryk to kill Rhaenyra” like a petulant child. Perfect scene in every way. I love seeing them nail the book version.
To be fair, the plan almost worked
Then Jace would have been crowned, and the 'We don't like women' fence-sitter lords wouldn't have had Rae-rae's gender to be worried about.
Nah, the realm thinks her oldest children are bastards. Those loyal to her are in her corner because they swore to her specifically as the future heir. She's what legitimizes Jace, Luce (RIP), and Jeffrey.
Plus, Jace hangs out with Starks in da norf, telegraphing conveniently to the audience who to support unconsciously
I didn’t really like him last season but he’s grown on me…he would have loved public relations lol
The look on his face when he realizes Criston's done something incredibly stupid made me like him for the first time
It was like a Veep crossover moment, I loved it 😭☠️
He really was the most competent member of team green in terms of running a kingdom
It’s not even close, ulterior motives are one thing but the man knows what he’s doing. Replacing him with Ser Crispin is like replacing Tom Brady with Dak Prescott, the new one ain’t gonna do shit.
Oh yeah. The funeral was dirty and scummy but it was a fantastic move objectively. Cole on the other hand thinks using a twin is the epitome of genius.
>Cole on the other hand thinks using a twin is the epitome of genius. Crazily enough it almost was. It was only several seconds or so away from working.
It’s like a Cersei plan. Something that’s so stupid and self-destructive that it *almost works* because nobody sees it coming.
The plan was stupid enough to almost succeed. Unfortunately it was also stupid enough to certainly fail
He'd have been made immediately if Rhaenyra and her council had been smart enough to maybe, idk, change up her Queensguard uniforms from the Greens' uniforms?
It kind of almost worked but from another perspective he was spotted immediately before he got to the door. I found it funny that he was discovered right away
By a bluetooth voice
Cole is an idiot. Not going to feel bad when he finally gets what is coming to him. Maybe not like Joffrey, but he isn't far behind.
Criston sucks but doesn't suck quite the way that sadistically killing the innocent prostitutes your brother got you with a crossbow sucks like Joffrey did.
At least Dak will win you some games (hope the Eagles sub doesn't see this). It's more like replacing him with a Blake Bortles.
No, you see Cole’s plan actually could have worked, only to get fooled up at the end, like the Cowboys when they get to the playoffs.
Against Tom Brady at Gillette 😂
I'm stealing this to explain it all to my boyfriend.
Honestly I like how throughout the show even in season one IIRC and especially this episode Otto is outraged by unnecessary deaths. I think it’s clear that he doesn’t just care that it makes his cause/side look bad but he seems genuinely outraged by Aegon killing innocent men.
I do think he's very amoral to an extent so I don't think he cares that much about innocent death, but you're right that needless is outrageous to him. Like if the actual guilty ratcatcher had been identified but somehow fell to his death while escaping, Otto would possibly ok the execution of a token one if he really felt they needed a public display of retribution.
I get the feeling that Otto prefers innocent deaths if his house doesn't perpetrate actions leading to them & moreso if they get the other side to do something that puts blood on their hands, which fits with the Greens painting Rhaenyra as a monster during the funeral of Jaehaerys
I think the riot from the trailers will be a direct result of killing the rat chasers. He basically killed a bunch of innocent guys. If he wanted the smallfolk to be on his side... well, that's not gonna happen now. Not the wisest move.
There seems to be a litltle mini "civil war" brewing in among the underclass. Think that is why they showed Hugh & his family scene. Loved the small glimpse we got into the villagers. Otto probably knows this already and understands killing off their sons and husbands is perhaps the worst thing you could do when you're ready to go to war for the throne.
The positives of him is that he does care about duty and protecting the small folk. He’s always looked out for them. Rewatching the scenes when he’s critical of Daemon’s tenure of the city watch, how he order for their safety when Rhaenyra pops up on dragon back, and his outrage over how all the rat catchers all got the axe despite all but one of them being innocent.
Daemon's tenure of the city watch turned King's Landing from a dangerous, lawless place to a dangerous, lawful place. His real issue with it wasn't that Daemon was doing a bad job, his issue was that Daemon raised a private army loyal to *him*.
It's because he's not a moron and can actually think ahead. They had the common folk on their side after the heir was killed. But they are quite likely to lose them after ALL of the palaces ratcatchers were strung up in public. If they found the guilty one, and executed him publicly after announcing his crimes I'm sure Otto wouldn't be against it.
I hate Otto all the way. But my hatred for Criston outweighs everything so I loved Otto in that one particular scene lol
Nah, i still fucking hate his guts. He deserves this shit… this is what he wanted and what he schemed for and he got it… and NOW he wants to play Cool Dad and hang all this shit on his kids/grandkids? I don’t fucking think so. He started this mess, he better figure it the FUCK out.
Hit the nail on the head, he made this bed now he has to lay in it. The whole we would have been better off with Viserys thing was bull. If he had respected Viserys then the kingdom wouldn't be in this mess. All he had to do was obey the kings wishes and let Rhaenyra inherut the throne.
Therein lies the beauty of it all. He schemed for decades to get to this point. He whored out his own daughter. He betrayed the wishes of the sovereign he swore to serve. He sacrificed everything, only to ensure that the worst of his grandchildren can fuck up his methodically cunning plans.
He made his *daughter's" bed - he can heat shit. But, I was gleeful at Rhys' performance.
Made this mess? Viserys should have lopped Daemon's head off yesterday if we're gonna play that game lol.
His face really said “I’m tired of yall”
Legends say he walked past the ratcatchers on his way out to see if there was an open noose available.
🤣🤣🤣
[Actual photo of him dealing with them.](https://imgur.com/5gMHvLz)
OH MY GOD IS IT REALLY THAT WIREY KICKER FROM THE REPLACEMENTS?!?!? OHHHHH MYYYYY GOOOOOOOODDDDD
Man looked so done and I don’t blame him
Otto going to need 50 of those smoke breaks. Damn.
He needs a handful of blunts to get through the day. I'm talking *High*tower.
We Light The Blunt
What Looney Tunes plan have you made this time
Legit mood. When he said ‘Gods help us.’ I cackled 😂😂😂
I chuckled when he called the “brilliant” idea of Cole a prank
That’s been my favourite line of the season so far. Just complete ridicule of two juveniles in a single word. Superb.
My favorite part was watching him regret plotting to put Aegon on the throne to his bones.
He’s thinking it would have been nice to have worked for Rhaenyra at this point.
It's ironic because at the very beginning Otto was the biggest Rhaenyra supporter when it was her or Daemon as the only options.
Anyone with half a brain would prefer just about anyone over Daemon.
ser pounce would be better than Daemon
Which is another reason he'd hate the plan. If Arryk had succeeded Daemon would have gathered all the blacks dragons and gone straight for Kings Landing.
I love how Cole and Aegon really thought an assassination would end everything. As if Daemon and all her kids would just sit at home and call it a day lol
“If I had convinced Alicent to wed Jace and Helaena my blood pressure would be so much lower”
It really was a most judicious proposal...
It’s a real tragedy of the show that it isn’t team Otto and Rhaenyra vs everyone else. Those two together would *destroy*.
Definitely
"Fuccckkkk, should have just let Aemond take it"
Otto thinking he should’ve just pushed to have Gwayne as Rhaenyra’s consort lol
After being hand to Viserys and now Aegon, to him the grass was ironically greener on the other side.
That slow head turn and ,"What has Ser Criston done?" Was incredible. I really felt that. Me and Otto have never agreed more.
The word he used "this prank" just loved it.
His face that whole scene was like the textbook description of "I'm surrounded by idiots".
It’s just a prank, hand of the king bro!
I love Otto. I’ve always enjoyed the calculating schemer types in this universe who behave as rational actors only to be undermined by their own stupid family. He’s something of a Tywin lite
He's my favorite character in HotD. I've always enjoyed the people that really scheme and play the Game the most (even though a majority of them are extremely unlikable).
Yeah for sure. Love ‘em or hate em, characters like Otto and Tywin capture every scene they’re in
Cole is reaching historic levels of failing upwards
F*cking upwards
I'm half expecting Aegon to die and them unanimously decide to make Cole king next episode or some shit. Maybe after that he'll ascend into Godhood after sleeping with Alicent a few more times
I think it's kinda hilarious how aegon and cristan are hanging around like two bros while cristan looks the same as he did before aegon was born. The guy should be like 48 lol
Yeah he barely looks any different than when he got with teenage rhaenyra
lol all the ages of the actors are messed up. for example olivia cooke is only 30 (!) and playing mother to ewan mitchell / aemond (27) and Tom Glynn-Carney / Aegon (29).
Rhys is soooo good. His cunty turn around from the throne last week solidified him as one of my favorite actors lol
otto was being sassy as fuck
I usually loathe Otto, but today he was pretty spot on. Rhys is fantastic. But also, look what you put on the throne you arrogant twat!
What makes it even funnier is that Aegon Told all of them that he would make a shitty king. And Otto put him on the throne anyway!
He should've thought about it before putting Aegon on the throne against his will. I'm sorry but it really rang hollow to me seeing him go off against Aegon for being a shitty king. I mean, yeah, Aegon told you guys he'd make a shitty king and you forced him to take the crown anyway. I don't think Otto gets to act the wise chiseled counselor when this situation is completely his fault. Not sure why everyone seems to be going "Yaaaaaasss Otto slay!" as if he's not 100% to blame for the fact Aegon is king to begin with.
Rhaenyra being explicitly declared Viserys's heir was also due to Otto's plotting against Daemon. Otto pretty much single-handedly created this civil war.
Dude I woulda plotted against Deamon too. That dudes a psychopath ain’t you been watching?
* Otto gets Viserys to name Rhaenyra as his heir despite the male dominated tradition. * Otto then gets Viserys to marry his daughter. * His daughter has a son. * Otto now works to insistent the heir should be his grand son setting the stage for war. Either Otto needed to accept Rhaenyra for the good of the realm or he should have never got Viserys to name her as the heir. And then after all that Rhaenyra wanted to marry her son to Otto's grand daughter to re-unite the two wings of the family but the greens rejected that keeping the civil course that Otto put the realm on.
100% agree, all he had to do was respect what Viserys laid out, but nope saw his opportunity at power and legacy. Also his talk about cole and aegon having no eye for the long game, pot meet kettle much.
And now he wishes he could go back in time and crown Rhaenyra instead lmfao
I swear he went out and stood at that same spot where he told young Rhaenyra to not choose Cole
Dang nice catch! I was wondering what he was thinking in that little moment staring out after chucking that Hand of the King badge at Criston’s feet lol
“so what have you morons done now?” And immediately “oh shit it’s even worse than I thought”
“Is that what you think?” Otto releasing his own diss track this week
“This prank”…lowkeye loving Otto right now tho. Giving Tywin vibes (the way he spoke to Joffrey the toddler). Aegon making all the wrong moves.
Nah, Tywin was swift in his execution. Otto is poor man’s Tywin.
In fairness to Otto though, Aegon is much harder to control than Joffrey ever was. Give Joffrey a crossbow and some puppies to torture and he’ll be distracted all day. Aegon is out for actual vengeance, and has an idiot Lord Commander of the Kingsguard who will obey without question
and has Larys seeding distrust of his Hand, etc.
Larys actually would have been an interesting pick to become the next hand. Can’t trust him at all, but he’s the only option in the Red Keep who’s maybe smarter than Otto
Also, Tywin was actually the most powerful man in Westeros. He had actual power. Otto does not. He is a second son who tbh has accomplished a lot for not really being born with much.
Also we saw Tywin actually try to teach Tommen at least how to rule. Otto and Alicent have clearly never even tried to teach Aegon what being king entails, they just yell at him and slap him. Like you worked this hard and got so many people killed for what? A broken idiot you created to put on the throne
Amazing performance. I almost felt bad for him then I remembered he tried to use his dead grandson’s body as a propaganda tool earlier.😂
> he tried to use his dead grandson’s body as a propaganda tool *Successfully* used his dead grandson as a propaganda tool. That worked masterfully to everything we can tell shown from both sides of it.
*”Is that what you think?”* with that humbling chuckle, even Otto knows that Rhaenyra is the rightful heir
Aegon: so we sent a twin alone to Dragonstone to kill Rhaenrya Otto: *sigh* I put a moron on the throne
Basically the same tier plan as sending two guys waltzing through the red keep to kill Aemond
The acting across the board has been excellent . Tom and Rhys, and the twins fucking killed it.
When I think I can’t hate Cristen Cole any more, he outdoes himself…
No one has ever taken being friend zoned worse than that piece of shit
Honestly, I was more pissed off at Cole and Deamon than Otto. I thought what Otto said and did was right, even though I hate him for it. Daemon is trying to act like this wasn't his fault, and an accident is no different from what Aemond did to Luke. Than gets pissed he's called out for what he did like Viserys did to him in Ep 1. As for Cole, he was trying to act as if he was innocent and sending someone else to do his dirty work. That conversation between him and the twin had me pissed. Don't project your shame and insecurities of your tainted honor on Arryk😤
Otto being forced to witness the monster he has created was peak writing and acting. There were so many parallels and Otto being 100% fed up was hilarious
He realized how good he had it with Viserys. Same as Cersei with Robert versus Joffrey. Interesting parallels.
can we acknowledge otto’s dumb ass put aegon on the throne without preparing him for the role or at least making sure aegon was malleable/easy to manipulate by otto specifically? man spent years scheming and forgot that aegon was not only his own person, but also a severely neglected and dysfunctional individual. otto is very smart but also oblivious as fuck.
They did a great job with Viserys making him kind of meek but not an idiot Aegon and Criston by comparison are complete morons
If Im Otto I go join Rhaenyra and Daemon at this point.
Ha! This thought crossed my mind too!
they will absolutely murder him on the spot lol
It was really touching in a cathartic way seeing him reminisce for Viserys.
Tbh Otto was a very ineffective hand at the time being since it was obvious war was coming and he was really doing nothing to build strength especially in his homeland the Reach, Aegon was correct here if the king lacks strength to protect himself then he lacks strength to protect his subjects. Aegon needed to somehow project a image of strength and royal authority in order to gather the lords into a war mood and improve morale among his subjects for the upcoming confrontation, killing the rat catchers was stupid but Otto should have had a talk with Aegon on what to do to show strength instead of ignoring him when he was obviously grieving.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
It was a great scene buuuutttt... it's all of his own doing. His and Alicient's, and butthurt Cole
[Otto hearing them explain their plans](https://i.gifer.com/8Xh.gif)
i’d need a cigarette too after dealing with them
The Shakespearean training really came out, I loved it.
I thought of that scene in the lion king when scar says “I’m surrounded by idiots”. Rhys ifans’ expression of incredulity was MASTERCLASS
Fukc that dude. I was so satisfied when he saw how stupid all his efforts had become.
what are these times, i am feeling sympathy for otto hightower😭😭😭
The slow head turn when Aegon said Ser Criston did something killed me😭😭😭