Mustafa’s Blog

The NBA Playoffs have just begun and the Bulls are sadly not in it. We were screwed over by the referees in that game against the Miami Heat early on and fell apart at the end. We will make it to the finals next year with Lonzo Ball and get that ring we deserve. Until then I will talk about who I think will win the first round of this year’s playoffs in both conferences. To start with the Eastern Conference, which is surprisingly better than the Western Conference for the first time in years, I believe the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers will win against the Brooklyn Nets and the Atlanta Hawks. The Nets had their chance to win it all when they had a super team and they completely choked and blew it so they are not advancing anywhere. The Hawks have been dominated by the Celtics in the first two games they have played this series so I expect a 4-0 sweep or maybe one win for the Hawks before they get eliminated. The other two match ups in the Eastern Conference are a bit more difficult to make a prediction for. 

The Miami Heat and the Milwaukee Bucks are the 8th seed and the 1st seed in the Eastern Conference. You would think that this would be an easy prediction but the Buck lost their first game to the Heat and Giannis Antetokounmpo was injured. He is an MVP player so without him it is difficult to say what will happen unless he is able to return for the second game. I will still give this to the Bucks though since the Heat should not have been in the playoffs because the Bulls should have won. The Bulls could have destroyed Milwaukee without any difficulty but that will happen next year. The Knicks and the Cavaliers are evenly matched in terms of record and wins so far in their series at 1-1. I think that the Cavaliers will come out on top due to Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland. I am sure that this duo will dominate this series and give them the edge they need to win this series. The Western Conference has easier matchups to predict than the Eastern Conference. The Denver Nuggets are going to sweep the Minnesota Timberwolves. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are gonna crush their entire team so it’s a very safe bet. The Memphis Grizzlies winning against LeBron all depends on Ja Morant and his health. The Grizzlies kept a close first game and then choked in the last three minutes while the Lakers just carried away. The Lakers have more injured players with their best superstars gone so it honestly could go either way. I will have to say that the Grizzlies win the series but it would probably be in 7 games with each one being very close. The Sacramento Kings have beaten the Golden State Warriors twice now and are leading 2-0. De’Aaron Fox is going to carry them to victory. Draymond just got suspended so they will be struggling up until the point that they lose. The Phoenix Suns and the LA Clippers are evenly matched and have lots of superstars on each team. The Clippers have an older team while the Suns are younger and were at one point dominating the NBA. I will give this close matchup to the Suns 7 games due to Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. Paul George is out and Kawhi can’t carry the team to victory on his own. 

I wish that it were easy to predict who would win the Finals this year but it is a tossup now that Cavaliers and Warriors are no longer super teams. I would imagine that a team from the Eastern Conference will come out on top since their teams are much better than they have been in the past. The Bucks and Celtics are the favorites to win it all but I do hope that Nikola Jokic can defeat whomever they face to make it to the finals at the very least. It would be nice to see a lesser franchise win like the Nuggets rather than the Celtics or Lakers who always find a way back somehow.

I did not have high expectations for this movie which is why I made the wise choice of not going to the theaters to watch it. I was obviously right but it still stings that DC has no idea how to make a movie or how to connect their universe either. I guess Marvel will always remain better when it comes to movies for the next couple of decades. I mean at least Marvel knows how to market their movies so that people actually know when it is coming out because I had no idea that another Shazam film was going to be released until the weekend after. The first movie was actually a decent film but this new one was honestly garbage. It was not nearly as funny as the first film and it was just more boring overall. Marvel knows how to make cameos entertaining and good but the one with Wonder Woman was pretty lame with him only wanting to go out with her and her not really contributing anything worthwhile to the film. We also won’t see Gal Gadot again after this in any DC film which isn’t much of a good thing. 

The only thing that I really liked about this film was that we got to see the whole Shazam family powered up and fighting and working together. The villains in this movie who were the daughters of Atlas whom I have never heard of despite me being a big DC fan were pretty underwhelming. The only way they could have saved this film was by getting Shazam’s biggest enemy into this movie which was Black Adam. I mean I can’t even comprehend why they decided to tease him in the first movie and set him up only for nothing to come of it. The Black Adam movie wasn’t exactly good either so it makes no sense that neither character even met each other. Shazam and Black Adam are interconnected, in that they derived their powers from the same wizard. Now they’re related on a deeper level, since they’ve both been at the center of really awful movies. There is also only one good action scene and it comes near the start of the movie. It presents a devastating but small-scale problem that is the collapse of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge but the rest of the movie has nothing better going on. I mean a fight between Shazam and Black Adam to the death or something would’ve been good enough to close out this dumpster of a franchise. Zachary Levi happens to disagree with all the hate that the movie is getting since he claims that they made a great movie but a movie that is great would actually be making money compared to this one. 

One of the biggest problems moving forward for DC is what James Gunn plans to do with all these failed superheroes. He has officially taken over DC and is meant to be the next Kevin Feige in terms of planning a cinematic universe with all the best heroes like Batman and Superman. The new DCU will reset after the Flash movie with Ezra Miller and all the Batmans have been released. They can’t even stick to their schedule of releasing movies and all the delays make it impossible for anyone to stay interested in their movies. While certain films have been able to make a decent amount of money, none of them have been successful in that they were genuinely good movies. The directors and producers have been blamed and fired after failing and no one wants to stick around long enough to turn things around. Marvel has had consistency for the last 15 years and they have created the most successful franchise ever. DC has tried to rush into things too quickly without giving their best heroes a proper introduction or background and the issues with actors and directors behind the scenes have done nothing to help at all. Now they are going to restart all over again and hope that it somehow works out which I would be willing to bet money on it never happening. The DCEU will be over soon and the next Superman movie will be the beginning of what I expect to be more failure.

Ant-Man has been one of the best superheroes in Marvel since the release of the very first movie. The introduction of Scott Lang as the new Ant-Man instead of Hank Pym being the guy we all thought would be introduced at first is a very welcome change due to Paul Rudd being an amazing actor and Scott being a hilarious character. The first Ant-Man movie was amazing while the second one was just average. I am going to talk about the most recent Marvel movie to come out which has left so many people divided over whether or not it was a good movie. 

In the week before the movie was released, many critics slammed the movie and led many people to believe that this movie was going to be one of the worst movies to be released by Marvel. I can assure you that this is not the case at all. I understand that there are some flaws in the movie that I will elaborate upon later but I can honestly say that there are far worse Marvel movies out there and this is not even in the top 5. The storyline moved very quickly as the characters were almost immediately dragged into the Quantum Realm at the beginning of the movie. I think that this was good for fans who wanted to see more action quickly as opposed to dragging out. The special effects in this movie were far more noticeable than in previous movies due to the way that the world worked in the Quantum Realm. The biggest highlight of this movie was Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror. He was phenomenal in his role and did not disappoint with his lines at all. Kang will be the next big bad throughout the rest of the Multiverse Saga and while this movie may not have been perfect like previous movies with Thanos, I am hoping that Loki season two and the Avengers: The Kang Dynasty movie can balance that out. I would also recommend watching this movie without looking at Rotten Tomatoes because that is literally the worst source ever in history. 

I remember seeing MODOK in like some marvel kids cartoon a long time ago and remembering how weird he was. Now that he has officially been added to the live screen people are hating on his design as if he is not supposed to be the ugliest creature ever. I did not know who he was supposed to be in the comic books at all since I don’t really read them but it looks like the Ant-Man director and writers decided to make him the Bee villain bad guy from the first Ant-Man movie. I always wondered what happened to him the first time I watched that movie but quickly forgot about him. Darren Cross was a good villain as Yellowjacket but as MODOK he was just something else. Scott and Cassie caught up with him in a funny way throughout the movie and his face reveal probably gathered laughter from every movie theater like it did with mine. I don’t think it is fair that the movie be criticized because of him because he is just not that important of a Marvel character at all. He was pretty funny in all his interactions with Scott and Cassie and even redeemed himself as an “Avenger.” Scott said that he was in and that it had been a long day so that pretty much confirms that he died an Avenger. This movie needed a little more to elevate it to the level of the first Ant-Man movie. I remember reading online that the first drafts of the movie had Kang escaping the Quantum Realm while Scott and the others remained trapped. This was a bit predictable for a villain as big as him and they may have changed it up to subvert our expectations but overall I think that they should have killed off either Hank or Janet to add more stakes to this movie. The post credit scenes with the Council of Kangs and Loki have me excited for what Jonathan Majors is going to do in this role and I can’t wait to see the next movies to be released in the future.

The poem, “All in green went my love riding” by E.E. Cummings was a quite difficult poem to understand. The poem itself was easy enough to read but not exactly understood just by reading it once. It was written in stanzas with two or three lines which was certainly intentional, and is meant to be symbolic in some sort of way. There is use of imagery and juxtaposition in the poem and the metaphor of the deer being a symbol for the life and death of the narrator in the poem was important. I am however unsure if there is any meaning at all to the capitalization of certain lines but not the others. Certain lines end in the same or slightly different word which I believe has some sort of deeper meaning. Cummings’ choices and use of literary devices help to establish a sort of pattern within the poem that is difficult to understand at first.

This poem was mainly chosen at random from E.E. Cummings list of poems. I thought the title was interesting and expected a love poem at first glance. Cummings poems are usually difficult to understand like the one that we had done in class although I noticed a difference instantly and that was the removal of all parentheses and brackets. Each line is capitalized or not capitalized and each one was written this way for a specific purpose which is genuinely driving me insane since I can’t seem to figure out why he does and does not do it. His unorthodox method of writing poems has drawn so much frustration from the youth of America in their English classes. The use of smaller literary devices like alliteration are heavily present within the poem. My main issue with this is that I’ve never really understood how alliteration can help enhance a person’s work and I don’t see what its usage in the third and fourth stanzas actually did.

 

There is lots of repetition throughout the poem in both the lines and stanzas along with the literary devices that were used. I did not understand the role of the deer until after rereading the poem for the nth time but it all finally came together with the last line. This is part of why I dislike poetry so much but when I consider what Dickinson and Cummings do all the time in their poems that I have read, I understand why. That was kind of a plot twist which I honestly did not expect a poem to be able to pull off. I was under the impression that the poem was about a hunter and a deer and descriptions of what was going on up until the hunter was able to kill the deer. But it turns out that it was a love poem like I originally thought from the title and it was more dramatized by the way Cummings chose to reveal it.

I feel like one thing that I have done is unnecessarily label this poem as “difficult” despite me being able to partially decipher and understand it after a little over an hour. Maybe it is my laziness and tiredness combined with something else but I don’t know if it’s an unfair way to describe it but it certainly is the easiest since poetry is a known dislike for many. The way that the poet chose to reveal his intended meaning of the poem surprisingly stuck with me. I like to read things and understand it the first time around and having to read between the lines for a hidden meaning was always the worst. The topic of this poem being love made it slightly different because it was truly powerful and it did actually make me feel smart for being able to put something like that together. I now know I would not have been able to read a more difficult poem like this one until after having been in both AP Language and AP Literature. 

 

 This poem was meant to explore how love can be a hurtful thing and how it takes time for it to die out. The way he used the deer and heart was great symbolism and helped give deeper meaning to this poem by giving it a higher level of sophistication. E.E. Cummings’ other love poems were more direct with his message but his only hints here were the title and final line of the poem. There is not too much else to say when it comes to the topic of love in literature.

The second Black Panther movie was not the same without Chadwick Boseman to play T’Challa. It took a lot longer to release because of covid but I still somewhat enjoyed the movie. I might be the only person who thinks that they should have recasted him instead of killing off his character. They did not really even do a good job of writing him off at the beginning of the movie. I feel like they should have had some other hero to crossover to make the movie even better. I wish that Klaue from the first movie had not been killed off so that he could remain a villain for the Wakandans. I wish Chadwick Boseman had never died so that he could still play such an awesome character. Marvel recast General Thaddeus Ross with Harrison Ford when his original actor died so I will wonder why they did not do the same for T’Challa’s character. The gaping hole of Chadwick was all the more obvious because they had to fill it with an ensemble. It’s no one’s fault and they had to do it this way. I just don’t know if it should have been this long with nothing to give beyond paying respects to Boseman. 

The movie starts out with the death of the Black Panther that everyone loves and his funeral. The coming conflict over vibranium and its ability to be tracked with a newly created detector was hinted at towards the end of the first movie when Wakanda announced that they were far superior to every other nation because of their vibranium. Ironheart could have had a better introduction to the MCU but maybe her show or movie will help expand on that. She was funny with some of her lines but the real comedian is M’baku. He is the funniest character in these movies and he even becomes extremely respected as time goes on. I think he’s the character who helped this movie from beginning to end not stay boring due to his actions and scenes. The idea for the main conflict was not that good though. Riri’s existence as a scientist who could create vibranium detectors should not have been a reason for Talokan to go to war with the world and Wakanda. There were plenty of ways to get what everyone wanted while not pointlessly fighting. I personally did not like the rings that were inside of Namor and his nose and the bodies of the other Talokan characters. I just happen to think that it makes them look not so pretty. The way the movie ended and the conflict was resolved was just not good. Forming a peace treaty with the guy who killed your mom after you swore revenge on him is ridiculous. The coolest scene was when Killmonger showed up and told Shuri what her options were which she somehow avoided altogether by becoming best friends with the bad guy. I guess he will appear in the future in Marvel but I am sure that if he doesn’t come back then this ending will have been for nothing. 

I am gonna give this movie a rating of 7 out of 10 because it was super long but the story and action was below average. This was kind of like the latest Thor movie that everyone was hoping would be good but there was too much forced comedy and a very weak plot after having a great movie be released. There really is not much to do but hope that the future Marvel movies that come out in 2023 are awesome starting with the Ant-Man movie that is supposed to be awesome according to the internet and people who have looked through the leaked script. I would like to see more marvel movies and television shows and soon enough they will be flooding movie theaters but I wish that they are better than the more recent movies that we have been seeing.

 

Our first semester here in AP Literature has been both fun and challenging at the same time. It wasn’t as different from AP Language as I was expecting it to be since we still had to read books and answer questions. I have enjoyed writing blog posts about topics I found interesting which obviously includes the Game of Thrones franchise. My time throughout the semester has helped me learn more about how to understand more challenging books and works of fiction. I have read books that I was unable to comprehend the first time around and it was annoying that I needed to read the books twice over to actually understand what was going on in the story. I think that there has been a great job done so far teaching the students to analyze and interpret different works of fiction from various places. I would definitely advise incoming students to be prepared for the workload that comes with this class and other classes because it can be very stressful at times. The first semester of senior year is super important and might even be the most important semester of high school for many students. It is also a great idea to have all the checkpoints for reading the books in AP Lit done well in advance. It is very helpful to know what the class is talking about and to make sure that you don’t fall behind. I have read two books in an entire sitting so that I could at least have some knowledge about it before being forced to look it over again since I could not really comprehend it the first time around.

The last six months haven’t exactly changed me much or changed my perspective on anything serious. I am taking certain things more seriously now that I am a senior and about to head off to college but overall I would like to think that not much is changing for me. I suppose that my perspective on how I approach my class work and school has changed now that the first semester is almost over and the second semester is about to start. I don’t know that I need to put in as much effort as I did before now that I have submitted all of my college applications. You can totally call me lazy for this because I am but the hardest semesters of high school are basically over for me. It’s not a good idea to let any bad habits develop but I don’t think that I will be able to help it. I have definitely got to try my best when college starts because I know that the amount of effort and hard work needed will be immense if I want to start working as soon as I possibly can. The lessons that I have taken away from my time at this school will be invaluable when I start classes that are even more difficult than the ones that I am taking now. I had a problem with using my phone that affected my ability to focus going back all the way to my sophomore year of high school. When I realized how it could affect my grades in high school, I made the decision to start using it as little as possible so that I could put forth my best effort in class. That would definitely be the most important takeaway so that my time in college is not plagued with any of the same sort of issues because it will be more severe at that point than it ever would have been in high school. I am still looking forward to the second semester and I cannot wait to graduate. I hope that my grades are an improvement on the first semester but that really just depends on me and what I do with my time since I tend to procrastinate among other things. I wouldn’t call senioritis an excuse for laziness because at a certain point there isn’t any real reason to need to put in full effort for something you do not want to do but I will have to wait and see.

I would like to talk for the last time this year about my favorite fantasy series which is Game of Thrones. It is one of my favorite shows ever and I have consumed all of the content created by the author despite how long it is taking to read and finish it all. The first six seasons were perfect in my opinion and each had storylines, battles, and dialogue that went above and beyond. My favorite character during these seasons was Jon Snow and his storyline beyond the wall and during the war for the North against Ramsay. Robb was also one of my favorite characters but his death was too devastating for me and is something I would like to never rewatch. There were also excellent characters whose time was cut short like Oberyn Martell and their brief presence on the show was still very impactful towards the plot. I wish that the show could be remade from the ending scene of Season 6 onwards where Daenerys is sailing to Westeros into something that is actually what the fans would like to see. I will still defend this show until the day that I die but some wounds never heal. 

I loved the first two seasons of the show and seeing everything for the first time is overwhelming. We don’t really understand how the plot will unfold until Jaime pushes Bran at the end of the first episode and to me it was not only shocking but set the tone for how the rest of the show would be. The ending of Season 1 was amazing and Ned’s death was done wonderfully. I could feel the emotions pouring out from the actors and I am sure we won’t see executions like that until House of the Dragon returns to the screen. The War of the Five Kings plotline was obviously the best of the show because of Robb and Stannis. I wish that there had been more time dedicated to Robb and all the fighting that took place but I understand that they can’t film scenes of such huge events for all the episodes. The filming for this show is extremely long and difficult. I loved Joffrey throughout the first two seasons because every scene with him was awesome. His actor was great at his portrayal of such a hated character. The earlier seasons which were based entirely on the books were awesome for so many reasons. I am just glad that I didn’t have to wait that long to watch it all.  

I can’t rewatch season 3 at all knowing what happens to Robb at the end. The Red Wedding will always be the most shocking scene I have ever seen. I really don’t think I’ll ever have such a reaction to a murder scene because it was just terrible. I liked the villains in the show who opposed the Starks because their characters were just awesome. Tywin Lannister was the best part of the third and fourth seasons and his scenes and dialogue were amazing. He had great scenes with Joffrey and his children throughout the show. I loved the plotline surrounding King’s Landing in Season 4 where Joffrey got killed and Tyrion was accused of his murder. One thing leading to another killed so many people later on in this show and led to some really good revenge and death scenes. Peter Dinklage gave his best performances in Season 2 and 4 and he did an amazing job during Tyrion’s trial. I also loved seasons 5 and 6 even though some people think they were bad. They were very good in my opinion and had the best moments in the entire show. Jon and Sansa reuniting was the first good thing to happen for the fans in a long while and watching them destroy Ramsay was so satisfying. Jon was at his best here when he fought in the Battle of the Bastards and fought Ramsay as well. Sansa and Jon feeding Ramsay to his own hounds was the best death in the show. I just wish that Rickon had zigzagged or done something to not get killed in his first episode back after multiple seasons. Jon being declared as King in the North was just as awesome as when Robb became King and his reveal as the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark was the best reveal ever thanks in large part to the epic music in the last episode of the season.

I know that everyone says that Harry Potter is one of the best book series and it is one of the best since it has sold the most money worldwide but I can’t help but think the movies are not as good as they could have been. I get that movies will often change how things went down in the show just a little but they changed the characters a lot and it didn’t make the movies as good as they could have been. They’re really great movies, but definitely not the type I’d group as the best tier. The movies either have to blow my mind with the plot or evoke a lot of emotional response, which was what the books did. My favorite thing in the books was seeing how the plot all came together intricately. I see loads of minor details from a few books back that turn out to be foreshadowings of major plotlines. The movies are still well made and entertaining for the ride for people who would rather watch the movies than read the books, but the plot doesn’t particularly stand out too much for me. 

The biggest problem with the movies is that sometime during the adaptation from book to screenplay, the scriptwriter developed an obsession with certain characters. Hermione and Snape are the main two, where he either removed or seriously toned down their more questionable behavior, to make them appear better or purer than they were in the books. I got the impression the directors weren’t fans and didn’t really understand the source material. They just wanted to sell a marketable franchise. I think a lot can be forgiven when an adaptation has the right heart and soul, but I’ve never been able to sense that in these movies. The movies do help with imagining what the world looks like in terms of magical things like Quidditch and battles with wands compared to the books because at least you are seeing something. There are also changes in relationships with certain characters. Harry and Ginny’s relationship is a perfect example. The book version of Ginny is one of the best characters in the series and the relationship with Harry makes complete sense. The film version however was awful and there was not much screen time or character development for Ginny and the relationship was just seemingly thrown in from nowhere. I am sure that most people would have wanted to see Harry and Hermione end up together.

There is certainly good stuff about the films. The CGI from movies two and 3 onwards was amazing, the dementors were genuinely terrifying, the set pieces were phenomenal, the basilisk fight was better than the books, and the acting, especially during character deaths, was amazing. However, for most book readers, when you put the book characters and movie characters side to side, the movie characters seem way more one dimensional, especially in the later movies. This change was primarily noticeable in Ron, Hermione, Ginny and even Dumbledore. Fans have often complained about the changes to these characters and I do not disagree with them. This doesn’t take away from the overall performance of all these actors who worked for many years to deliver these movies to us. This is the only major book series to have almost everything written adapted on screen. The Percy Jackson series failed since the movies were so awful and no other books have come close to these two. I have also heard that the movies had a problem with diversity from fans, who are frustrated by the overwhelming whiteness of the Wizarding world. I feel like part of this is because the author wanted only British actors but it’s still a major flaw that fans have to overlook to enjoy rewatching the movies.

I am very upset now that the first season is finally done. Waiting another year or two for more episodes is just awful. I have been spoiled rotten since most shows I’ve watched were already released and completed and I just binge watched them. I do not even understand how people waited 8 years for Game of Thrones to finish along with other popular shows. Anyway, this last episode was beyond shocking and epic for so many reasons. Now that war is certain to take place after that ending, I can’t wait to see all the future characters who have yet to appear along with all the battles on dragonback and more. 

Lucerys in this episode was heartbreaking for so many reasons. The conversation with his mother at the beginning of the episode was heartwarming and heartbreaking considering what happened to him. His accidental death at the hands of Vhagar kickstarted a war that will literally destroy the lives of countless people in this show. His confrontation with Aemond at Storm’s End is not portrayed the same way it was in the book and those who complain about it have not realized how much better it is this way. Aemond wanting retribution for his eye makes sense as someone who was scarred for life and his reaction to accidentally being responsible for killing his own family was hard to watch. I am so invested in his character now that he must live with the consequences of what Vhagar did. It also highlights the fact that the idea that the Targaryens can control dragons is an illusion just as Viserys said in episode 1. Aemond will never be able to tell people what really happened and he will become the epic character that we see him become in the books. I think that this will bring a new layer of depth to his character in the show as opposed to the books where it seems like he killed Lucerys on purpose. Wanting only to take his eye from him instead of killing makes more sense for his character as he was not a murderer at this point in his life. The fans who complain about this and read the book still don’t get that these changes were made for a reason and that the show will be so much better for it. I cannot wait to see the reaction of the Greens and Blacks to this when the next season is released. 

The show is gearing up to display even more horrific deaths than the one in this episode. Watching Rhaenyra give birth to her stillborn daughter was awful and makes me appreciate women for giving birth to the human race. I am grateful to never have to experience anything even remotely similar. I am also excited at all the names that were dropped in this episode. We heard a familiar name that all Game of Thrones fans love and that would be Stark. In the present day of this show, the Lord of Winterfell is Cregan Stark. He is a man that the world will not be able to wait for. I am so excited to see his interactions with Jacaerys and how they get along. Learning who his actor will be along with that of Prince Daeron is of the utmost importance and I hope that casting for these two is already underway. What I can’t wait to see are the battles between Aegon and Rhaenys along with the Blood and Cheese scene as well. I imagine my stomach will churn at Blood and Cheese like it did during the Red Wedding. I don’t know if my heart can take more brutal scenes like these ones but we will all have to find a way to manage it somehow. The show has improved upon the book in several ways as well due in large part to the amazing actors in this show who have brought life to these characters and have done excellent jobs. The changes to this show do bring up some questions in regards to certain characters like Aegon the Younger and Viserys who were aged down and are much younger. I imagine that there must be some significant changes coming which I hope are done correctly as the entire story for this show has been completed.

I have watched yet another episode of this franchise which continues to amaze me. House of the Dragon is the best and most popular show being released at the moment and it is for very good reason. I along with 10s of millions of people wait until Sunday night throughout the week so that we can watch this show. I would like to talk about the events of episode 8 and its potential impact on the future of the show. There has been another time skip and it will also be the very last one as the show finally has all of its actors set for the future. 

The most recent episode begins with us learning that Corlys was injured in the Stepstones and his brother wanted to take Driftmark from his brother’s “grandson” upon his death. This sets the plot for the episode as he tries to petition and ultimately fails. We all know that while he was technically right about everything, we still were laughing when Daemon sliced his head. Matt Smith’s one liners are beyond hilarious. The parentage of Rhaenyra’s children will likely continue to play a role in the story as it continues to circulate everywhere. 

The other major plot point that we need to concern ourselves with is the king himself. Now that Viserys is dead, war is on the horizon. Alicent misinterpreting his last words was interesting and I just know that Paddy Considine will be winning something for his portrayal of this character. When the author tells you that you played a better version of a character that he wrote, that’s when you know just how great you are. Regardless, we are about to witness the consequences of his death in the next two weeks and the remaining seasons of the show. Now that Aegon is going to be crowned as king, we will see the House of the Dragon tear itself apart. 

I would like to finish off by talking about Aegon and Aemond. We learn a lot about their personalities as they antagonize other people. We instantly learn how awful of a person Aegon is when we see the scene of that serving girl. It didn’t take long for the twitter world to descend upon him so quickly. I would like to congratulate his actor on his performance since he is evidently the new Joffrey. Aemond on the other hand is far too cool with the way he carries himself. I believe the casting for this was excellent and cannot wait to see what they do with these characters. Aemond’s animosity towards his family hasn’t gone unnoticed or away and it probably won’t anytime soon. I am excited to see what he will do throughout the remainder of the show. I am missing Prince Daeron however. We have yet to see the youngest son of the King and Queen and he has not even been mentioned in the show. I am glad that the author confirmed he’d appear in season 2 but that will happen years from now and I genuinely don’t get why he couldn’t have appeared even if only for a second. I am excited to see all of their dragons however. There were very powerful scenes and dialogue in this episode that I know this show will continue to provide to us fans in the next two weeks and years to come.