This has to be against the rules in jousting. That was a really low blow Daemon Targaryen pulled. I would think doing this would get you banned permanently from jousting, so does anyone know the history of it? Was this against the rules?
shareThe rules of jousting varied from eras and regions, but this move looked illegal. There didn’t seem to be any refs to call it. Since Deamon is the king’s brother, probably only the king himself could call him on it. Also, although GOT looks like it is set in medieval times it is not a historical drama. Are we even sure it is set on planet Earth? In their universe jousting rules can be as fantastical as dragons and whitewalkers.
Hope there aren’t any more animal cruelty scenes in this.
I know it's all fiction but it is loosely based on real medieval times.
This scene made me wonder what the rules were and the history behind jousting. I suppose this info would be available on google (or Bing) but I was just curious to know if anyone in here might have some insight into this ancient sport. I might look up some info on Bing and Google and post it in here later.
As far as animal cruelty goes.... I'm sure no horses were injured when shooting this scene but it was quite horrifying watching both of'em tumbling like that.
Apart from anything else it was ridiculous. As if a thin wooden lance held sideways could trip a war horse at the gallop !
Plus his helmet was stupid too. What lunatic would go with an open face in a joust?
shareThat was one of my concerns everytime I saw him with that helmet. Maybe to illustrate how cocky and reckless he is?
shareYeah for sure, that was my take on the rationale to have him open-faced. Cocky, reckless and showing your opponent you're not threatened by him.
But I'd prefer it not go that way if I was making decisions about characters, it just kinda makes him look like a fool.
Arrogance and psychological warfare is one thing, but leaving yourself wide open to being blinded/mutilated (by lance shards etc) or speared in the head accidentally by a deflected lance or purposely by an unscrupulous opponent is another.
Another moment to show how reckless cocky and over confident he was (copied from GoT) was when he got (lol) his ass kicked after he claimed victory.
Just like The Viper ...
I think it was even him who said their only real power was as a result of their dragons, wasn't it? Not the guy who you'd expect to be a dickhead about it in man on man combat.
shareYeah, but it doesn't stop him from abusing that power. People with power are dickheads, most of the time :D
Like all dictators: their power comes from ... whatever ... and they abuse it.
Stalin would say "my power comes from the people" and would still abuse that power, killing and oppressing said people, lol.
Arguably then, his power was coming from the people who supported him, and it was them whom he was referring to. Rather than the whole of Russia
shareWhat I meant is that he was admitting that without their dragons they were nothing special and as such why would he be so arrogant in one-on-one combat? ie no face shield and underestimating his opponent.
It's basically for the same reason that they had people trudging through the snow north of the Wall in GoT without any head coverings. So the viewer could see who they were. Never mind that they would freeze their ears off.
Yeah that's possibly what it's about. Like when they have space explorers in movies take off their helmets even when it's extremely ill-advised to anyone with even a skerrick of intelligence. Just so the audience can see their faces. I don't like it and I think it's a bit of an insult to the viewer - and sometimes an indictment of the film maker's lack of storytelling skills.
shareProbably he was a very good fighter as well - and I think he proved it. There's no need for dragons to be a good fighter.
shareAs far as I know going for the horse was seen as a huge asshole move and could indeed get you banned.
This was not out of sympathy for the horses but because raising them was super hard and expensive, as it keeps being today.
According to: https://www.worldhistory.org/Jousting/
One set of ordinances for tournaments compiled in England in 1466 CE stipulated that prizes would be awarded for the following hits:
Unseating with the lance, or bearing horse and rider to earth.
Striking the opponent's coronel twice.
Striking the sight of the helm three times.
Correctly breaking the most spears.
Staying in the field the longest and still helmed, and having run the fairest course and given the greatest strokes, best with the spear.
(Gravett, 1992, 25)
I think that should be considered as "Unseating with the lance", so I don't think it is against rules.
Bearing horse? Does this mean, if your opponent's horse falls you will get rewarded? That is really odd.
Of course, that might not mean deliberately striking the horse. Surely, there had to be a rule against this.
I actually yelled "Bad Form!!" at the TV. My wife looked at me like I was crazy.
shareThe very next sentence after that list is, "Conversely, prizes could be withdrawn if a horse was struck, an opponent was hit in the back, or if one had barged into the tilt three times."
Maybe it means if the knight and his horse happen to fall, but not due to a direct strike to the horse. The meaning seems unclear considering it was explicitly stated that the horse cannot be struck.
Was thinking the same and was expecting someone to kick his ass out of the competition. But it didn't happen.
shareMy guess would be that aiming for the horse would be against the rules.
Jousting was much more brutal during the early medieval period to the point that the Church condemned those who died in a joust. Eventually rules were made to make jousting more orderly and less lethal. The railing you typically see in jousting scenes (which was present within the House of the Dragon jousting scene) was designed to help protect the horses from inadvertant harm. Therefore, I would suspect that harming the horse would be against the rules.
My impression was that nobody would say anything to Daemon due to his station and volatile temperament though.
It was like he was daring Otto Hightower to do something, but Otto wasn't going there at that time.
shareHe definitely was, since he chose his son to dual and asked for his daughter's favor. What a dick move. I expect him to be one of my favorites. Not quite Stannis-tier, but way up there if he keeps it up.
shareI'm pretty sure that killing half your best knights in a celebratory tournament would be frowned upon too.
shareThe tourney was ridiculous. They were no different to barbarian Dothrakis. Why were they calling themselves Ser as in knights ? In GoT the knights may have been killers but most of them observed standards of civil behaviour towards each other, courtly manners and all that. In HotD they are a rabble.
They haven't been in a war, so that's the closest to real battle they can get.
share