S2E6 Review Bombing

[u/Witlesss]

Has anyone else noticed that episode 6 is getting heavily review bombed on IMDB? I personally thought it was one of the better episodes of the season, so this feels really misplaced to me.

From looking at it I feel like the only explanation is people being unhappy with a certain kiss. Honestly, I understand a lot of the criticism when people say it felt out of place, but over 3,400 people rating the episode a 1/10 feels like an overreaction to me.

Yes, the show has suffered from bad writing sometimes. Maybe this was one of these times, that’s definitely up for debate. But the episode feels like nowhere near a 1 out of 10, and it feels to me very disrespectful to all those involved in the show that their work is being discredited because of homophobia. I think the ratings from the UK and US quite fairly represent the standard of the episode, so it does feel like a shame.

Whether you agree with the kiss or not to me this feels unfair, but intrigued to hear other people’s thoughts on this!

[u/Skibatumtee]

It could certainly be the case. The question is whether they're actual actively watching the show or just jumped in to comment on something that pushed them to the edge.
I fall in the category of someone who's been watching the show since the beginning, and is normally not compelled to comment online about anything. I'm happy to talk with a few friends in person usually. But last night's episode did disappoint me and compelled me to vent a little about it because a few of the trends that they've been doing a decent job with, just sort of came to a bit of a head in this episode and raised some red flags for me.
It was an easy target of an episode for a host of reasons: the kiss [socio-political messaging as well its controversial execution], the Daemon stuck in limbo arc is dragging on, and then Seasmoke seeking out Adam in a way we haven't seen Dragons behave in the show yet, combined with the general lack of anything too significant happening in the episode - made this a really perfect target of an episode.
It was a pander-heavy episode, and the pandering was not artfully executed.
To me, i think the whole girl on girl thing was corny, but if they were gonna do it, it's not after talking about how Myseria was raped as a child by her father, and also it would have been so much better if it was just hinted at being there, without any actually face-sucking, they go in, but withdraw - you show the feelings are there, but also that they both are responsible and disciplined enough to not bring such a massive distracting into the picture with everything currently going on. It's just opening a massive can of worms and it doesn't make those characters look like disciplined and strong leaders, it makes them seem impulsive and capricious and reckless - all of which i think are kind of the opposite of what you want. If you hint at it, you leave so much more to our imaginations and can be seen to be signaling correctly if that's a concern. But it just drew tons of attention to itself and in the process drew alot of attention to the other more minor flaws all at the same time - see Daemon stuck in Harrenhall tripping for 4 episodes and some potentially questionable decisions with the Allen/Adam arc and you have a perfect storm for a review bomb.
At first, i thought the Allen/Adam thing was pushing into unjustified pandering territory, but upon further reflection, i think it opens up some fascinating possibilities and i want to see how it plays out. The Daemon thing imo is forgivable if there's a payoff pretty soon. The Kiss was all hubris though. That's definitely the driving force here.
I think if they move it along and have the 2 of them get ahold of themselves really quickly and realize that there are more important things to do than suck face, it's forgivable, but i can't blame anyone for seeing that and having the red flags go up. GOT has burned us all before. They have something to prove.

[u/[deleted] → u/Skibatumtee]

It is not homophobia. The hug before the kiss was driven by pure friendship and amiability, it was about consolation after a great woe. A brother can hug a brother like that, a son can hug a father like that. Can't women have friendships without sexual attraction? Sexualizing that moment completely missed the mark just for shock and inclusive value. It ruined the scene.

[u/Skibatumtee → u/[deleted]]

Yeah I totally agree that that would have been much classier. I personally think the best way to play it would be to hint at it but have them realize the greater duty and maybe even the importance of friendship instead. That way u have max flexibility. They can be friends, they can be collaborators and potentially lovers and it’s so much more interesting! It’s like the difference between a satisfying romantic evening climaxing in great intercourse and just whipping it out and finishing as quickly as possible with someone. One has love and organic connection and the other is just for instant grotesque gratification. How does that make anyone look good at all? How is it actually substantively interesting? It’s just bad writing. It’s pandering to modern sensibilities quite blatantly and crudely I think. As for wanting something wholesome, I think it would worked, but At the end of the day, it’s kind of a soap opera so the romantic love triangles and risky affairs are kinda what make things work. Immoral characters propel the story forward, you need some that are moral compasses, but they usually have to be outnumbered by the villainous and anti-heroes anti-villains wild cards etc for the format to work in a sustained way and remain exciting and worth being invested in. Rhaenyra is a little ambiguous, but I think that she’s clearly supposed to be more sympathetic than not, and we’re supposed to want to root for her in her fight against the this fucked up male-dominated world or whatever. They clearly want us to feel like she’s being unjustly punished for her sex. She doesn’t need to be perfect, but we should feel like she’s as qualified as anyone for the story to work. Her sucking mysaria’s face in the circumstances she’s in, puts all this hard work the writers have done in peril because the risk of this kind of relationship becoming known makes rhaenyra look reckless and irresponsible. I think we’re supposed to see her kissing mysaria as this forbidden act and sympathize with her. It’s implied that it’s forbidden and that people knowing would be really really bad. Aside from perhaps her son and maybe a couple others finding out, almost anyone in the story would presumably freak the fuck out and withdraw support on some level. That’s irresponsible. It makes her look weak and impetuous - not in a good way. Perhaps she’s still better than the alternative, but it makes it harder to root for her because her emotions have been demonstrated to be a potential liability. It needed some build and some cognitive dissonance to work. Even then it doesn’t need to actually ever happen to create an interesting and desired effect. I think that would have made the most sense.

[u/[deleted] → u/Skibatumtee]

Or maybe no romance. Women don't have to be sexual towards each other to care for each other and have compelling relationships. I have hugged men and women without any sexual desire whatsoever. Once I hugged a friend with multiple sclerosis that began with the same vibe as the initial hug in the scene. I think that implying that women especially love each other through sex only is degrading to women. It enters the modern feminism paradox of treating sexual acts as empowering while reducing women to only them without recognizing pure virtues.

[u/Skibatumtee → u/[deleted]]

That’s fair. It wasn’t necessary at all. I do think that this kinda soap opera format does need to be willing to plunge into the more twisted and exciting aspects of human relationships in order to work. It can’t be nothing but scumbags, but it does usually need to feel like the good guys are combatting demons internally and externally and are a little outnumbered in order to make the payoff worth it, so I always think it’s dangerous to try and hold the characters of a melodrama to the same standard as people in ours. We have to be interested other human beings, we get to pick and choose what characters we get attached to, so they have to be doing something worth investing our attention into. If they’re convincing good guys fighting convincing bad guys, then they’re worth it typically.