I think I'm roughly around this with the episodes this season. Give or take a point.

1x01 - 8/10
1x02 - 8.5/10
1x03 - 9.5/10
1x04 - 9.5/10
1x05 - 4/10
1x06 - 7.5/10
1x07 - 8/10
1x08 - 10/10
1x09 - 6/10
1x10 - 7.5/10

I thought the first four episodes were really strong. I remember thinking before episode five, this is GoT season 1 levels of quality. Young Rhaenyra slaying a bore and coming back to camp bloodied was my favorite part of the season until we got episode eight, which was magnificent. Such a fun early binge.

The low points were really low, like the joust/tourney violence montage in the pilot, endings of episodes five and nine, to name a few. My biggest disappointment comes from my lack of trust with the creatives. Given how they handled the end of five and nine, and how they basically did the same to get their ending in ten, too, it's frustrating. For season two, I'm hoping for a deeper focus on character consistency. From episode to episode, and scene to scene.

It was odd that within the whole war council not a soul thought to say, let's not send off two of our nuclear weapon generating machines with no escort, and not your heirs, my queen, them, too. Let's do it this way so the audience can be filled with dread and engrossed by all the tension of feeling like something horrible is about to happen to one or both of them. (Ravens are slower, is an actual reason given for sending these two boys off to potentially become hostages or to outright die, which happens.) In the end it's bad luck that Aemond is there, is how it's presented to us.

The absolute lack of courage on these showrunners, too, in that final scene. I genuinely could not believe when they took the decision making of who is at fault away from the characters by having them say the dragons acted on their own. You can't blame the greens, audience. The dragons acted on their own. You can't blame Rhaenyra for launching war in S2, audience, her son was just killed. Pick a side. Tweet about the show!

I was almost too flabbergasted by that to even enjoy how visually impressive and cool the scene was, which is was! But all of a sudden Aemond can't be shown to actively want to kill this kid. He can threaten him all sinisterly, chase him on a nuclear weapon, but then is saying no?

That stuff aside, I absolutely loved how they presented Rhaenyra's look and vibe this episode. Her landing her dragon behind Otto and all those knights and just walking through them like a boss. Risky, but cool. Her walking around wearing the crown with guards following her, visually stunning. That table was beautiful, too. The War talks were intriguing. And I love what the actor playing the sea snake was doing.

Seeing Aemond with his glittering eye, that whole space, was just so well done, too. Such great atmosphere outside but inside as well. Especially inside. Overall, a really tense episode. I wish I had watched it drunk or something.