Let me shed light on the point of people’s complaints if you truly do not get it because it seems pretty straightforward to me.
Let’s start with, if the episode will be more or less the same as previous court scenes (“what would you have me do” type things or dumbly slapping political allies) then what’s the point? How would it even be a conceptual episode, Aegon having a hearing in S2 and his other council scenes certainly aren’t conceptual at all. If they switch it up someway I wonder even how, it sounds like a bottle episode more than a conceptual one.
Also you brought up Daeron but him not having been shown at all would be the exact reason for the ep to be centered on him. The genius showrunners didn’t even intend on including him in the series to begin with (There’s a reason why GRRM mentioned Daeron in one of his blog posts). This would be a way to rectify their mistake (and probably fail at it but it’d be an attempt) and give a pov of a character that was highly relevant on the battle field.
Centering an episode like this on a character that already has a high amount of screen time, when there’s several other characters who barely have any (especially if not used effectively), is the definition of uninspiring.
People have pointed out before that the show not leaning more towards being treated as an ensemble cast hurts the series overall. The Dance of the Dragons is about a familial civil war, the flaws of their regency, family relationships, and the toll it took on the realm as a whole (otherwise F&B wouldn’t have details on people other than the royals). It was never solely about one person, the show might’ve ignored some in world politics and warped the story in general to make it seem so to some people, but that’s where they got it wrong.
It doesn’t matter if you have 1 or 2 good characters in a large cast if the rest are poorly developed, underwritten, or just plain boring. It drags down the quality of the show with it (also doesn’t help that a lot happens in the book when his proclaimed protagonists aren’t involved. Which leads to bullshit being written for them that doesn’t make sense). As different as the story is, I cannot imagine GOT pulling this (because really, they could’ve to a degree), it was high quality in the beginning for the main fact that the ensemble as a whole shined together.
Ryan’s genius self even baited people with this, before season two aired he kept talking about how it would be “all about the kids”.. There is a reason why people were anticipating that, it would mean expansion on characters with little writing from S1. But it turned out to be a complete lie 😭
No but seriously, look up stats on screen time each of the characters get in HOTD. The gaps are egregious, and it maybe wouldn’t be so bad if the writing quality was top notch or if they used screen time effectively, but they didn’t. It’s not solely about who’s interesting, but what they can add to the world of the show in general. Something new or fresh would be less repetitive, even the addition of more check ins on minor characters could help a lot if done correctly. A more balanced narrative would be nothing else but a plus in this scenario.
It also doesn’t help that they have 16 episodes to wrap this entire story up, breaking the mould at least would be something that will stand out in the long run
But yeah that’s all I got, Quality over quantity yadda yadda :P
S3 writers will have to pull off some creative stuff with the combination of good writing in this episode and I doubt they have either. They never should’ve hyped it up if it won’t be that different from previous episodes.
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