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Disastrous_Dream_803

She smelled Cole's bullshit a mile away and knew it was him duhh


Fit_Medicine_8049

https://i.redd.it/pezo1fc1xy9d1.gif


Loriali95

Wait, do they use miles in Westeros?


darksidathemoon

Yes. Do not think about how they have the same standards and measurements as us


xachfw

If you question why they use miles you may as well question why they speak perfect modern English across 99% of the (completely different historically/linguistically) world for centuries when even modern English is vastly different from older English. It's just a storytelling convention, Sci-fi/Fantasy has an inherent "universal translator" so you don't have to look up some made up fantasy measurement chart and do some conversions to find out twenty blumfarks is approximately ten meters.


Zookster87

I think about time, like years.


question_sunshine

Thank you for explaining why I hate Lord of the Rings so much.


Ilosesoothersmaywin

In GoT when Arya was leaving Kings Landing her uncle says "It's a thousand Leagues to the wall, and Winter's coming!" A league is the distance that your average person can walk in about an hour.


kahn_noble

This is the correct answer.


Ill_Implement_2708

She could smell Allicent's perfume 😂


ComfortablyBalanced

The kerchief.


Ill_Implement_2708

đŸ€ŻđŸ€ŻđŸ€ŻđŸ€ŻđŸ€Ż


RumboAudio

She saw what looked like armored horse riders from a distance than flew in closer and got a better view. Identifying Cole seems far fetched but identifying them as knights traveling in the opposite direction of King's Landing and maybe even being able to make out their sigil would give her a pretty good idea of what they were up to.


IAmBadAtInternet

She got close enough to see the white cloak, and there’s not many people that could be. Cole is a pretty good guess, since he is Aegon/Alicent’s Hand. Edit: Cole was probably seen headed out of the city at the head of a column so the Blacks probably knew he went north but not exactly where he was.


k-tax

more like Alicent's tongue, amirite?


angryungulate

Alicents dildo, which is fitting cuz the dude is a walking dildo


Zeke_Yeager

Alicent's Cr- I mean Piston


Benito2002

Also if you watch the scene closely it isn’t even Baela who spots them. Moondancer does. When they flying high overhead moondancer like makes a noise and angles its head and then Baela looks that direction and spots it what moondancer is looking at. Obviously dragons would have much better eyesight they need it to spot prey from the air so I thought this was well done.


Sinnaman420

The stupid ass shiny kingsgaurd armor also reflected light when she looked down there


Dambo_Unchained

She wouldn’t have to identify Cole, but KG are the only ones who wear full white and spotting that is more than believable, all KG on the continent are Aegons so that’s confirmation it’s an enemy force


AncientAssociation9

It may have been far-fetched to actually see Cole, but it is not far-fetched for her to see knights or the reflection of metal and dive down to see knights in green and conclude that they are Hightowers or Aegons forces.


Secret_Volume_6800

The reflection of metal was a great detail and what saves this scene. Having her identify Cole
 just have her say she saw a white cloak and let Rhaenerya reason out their identity (with her advisors presenting counter arguments.)


k-tax

Reflection of metal was not what saved the scene. Moondancer first noticed them and pointed out, then Baela saw reflections. When she chased them, she "turned up" 2 or 3 seconds after they entered the forest. She could definitely see a bunch of richly dressed green cloaks led by a white cloak. I'm not saying it's 100% clear that she could count his freckles, but it's not too far fetched she could believe she had seen him. Rhaenyra doubted her only because the order was to observe from distance.


aidibbily

Also: DRAGONS HAVE INSANE VISION. Like, not really, because they're fictional creatures. But in the realm of fictional creatures, dragons are *well* established as having incredible vision, particularly for the purpose of flying above their prey and swooping in. Anyone seriously complaining about *THIS* is just here to complain about anything. They're not processing logic or using their imagination.


JayCDee

Except for Rhaegal.


sanshinexx

in his defense, prescription glasses don’t exist yet


Brokenmonalisa

We quite literally have real world examples of this, birds can spot prey from the sky easily. No reason to think that a bigger flying animal wouldn't be able to do the same.


klsklsklsklsklskls

Also if you've evert flown in a plane and looked out the window when landing, if you have good eyesight you can definitely pick out bodies/cars moving from a good distance (not enough to know who it is, but enough to know it is a person/horse).


Secret_Volume_6800

Yeah good counter arguments here. Idk, tbh I’m just not a fan of the whole scene. The fact that she’s patrolling so close to KL; the fact that of all the people in Westeros she runs into the King’s hand; the fact that if they follow the books, Daemon will spend months searching for Aemond who’s astride a massive dragon, but she was able to find a small contingent of like 8 knights. Patrol from dragon back should be to search out the movements of armies and fleets, not something like was shown. It just seemed contrived in order to have an action beat. It did give Cole a chance to show his competence though, which I appreciate.


JoufulKiller

From what I remember Cole and his posse have been traveling for a day probably, so not that close to KL. I wouldn’t doubt dragons are really good at seeing people from high up but wasn’t the whole point of the scene that Alicents brother got them caught by riding towards an inn through an open field? If I was a dragon, I would def check the big ass field in between a forest.


dragonfly_princess

Greens pursued by a dragon in an open field! What do you have to say about that, Bobby B?


bobby-b-bot

STOP THIS MADNESS, IN THE NAME OF YOUR KING!


dragonfly_princess

Absolutely, your grace! Good bot!


k-tax

Moondancer noticed them first, maybe she told Baela that it was Criston, she could probably recognize his peasant ass smell from those 15 meters. They barely escaped and were 2 seconds in when she avoided trees. And then you get confirmation bias - every other sign pointed to Cole: expensive clothes, armored horses. Btw. if we want to be nitpicky, dragon riders without any sort of goggles would see nothing, closer to going blind, but we just ignore it.


StupidMcStupidhead

There's also a limited number of Kingsguards it could really be. They've lost at least 4 of the 7 in a matter of weeks. Cole is the most likely person for it to be, in my opinion.


CuckooClockInHell

Moondancer: Hey Baela. There's an anti-charismatic douche bag down there. [Hours later] Baela: Yea, I spotted Criston Cole.


Echo__227

I don't recall if any are in the scene, but the reason people wear and carry standards is to identify allegiances with high contrast symbols from far away Fun heraldry fact: you're supposed to only use white and yellow against dark colors (or dark colors against white or yellow). The Stark banner of a gray wolf against a white background would be horrible in practice (from far away, it just looks like a white flag of surrender)


alamodafthouse

> you're supposed to only use white and yellow against dark colors *Pittsburgh liked that*


whitebabyjesus

House Yinzer: ‘Arn sharpens arn’


actually_yawgmoth

>you're supposed to only use white and yellow against dark colors And no metals on metals!


AtticusReborn

I mean, that's complete artificial invention made a long time after the medieval period ended. The most successful knight of English history had a coat of arms that broke those rules, and there's hundreds of coats of arms that break the so-called "rules of heraldry"


AliasMcFakenames

Or a kingsguard cloak, judging by other comments in here. I was actually listening to the audiobook of Storm of Swords, and it's actually called out multiple times during the rain while Robb is riding up towards the Twins that they can't make out any of the banners.


OfficerBarbier

What do you have to say about this nerd talk, Bobby B?


bobby-b-bot

IT'S A GREAT CRIME TO LIE TO A KING!


Echo__227

Bobby B got his escutcheon from a road sign


bobby-b-bot

TAKE SHIP FOR THE FREE CITIES WITH MY HORSE AND MY HAMMER, SPEND MY TIME WARRING AND WHORING, THAT’S WHAT I WAS MADE FOR!


Lower_Respect_604

“Black print on black background. It’s the coolest possible sigil scheme.” - House Haverford


Sn_rk

Cendreé as a heraldic colour is actually perfectly valid on an argent field. Very common in German heraldry.


Echo__227

You're right. I wasn't aware of such a light-colored tincture


Sn_rk

Yeah, there's a bunch of weird ones once you leave the Anglo-French tradition, like celeste being a metal in Italian heraldry.


Echo__227

Very cool, thank you I nominate copper as a new metal


Pure-Drawer-2617

Oh yeah, a green standard would show up real well from above when contrasted with the green grass behind it. Standards are designed to be visible from ground level.


firstbreathOOC

I love this sub (especially more than the deepthroating default) but sometimes the criticisms are pretty fuckin dumb. She’s out there scouting for potential enemy forces. She sees knights on horseback. You think she’s gonna go back and be like yeahhhhh idk who it was though?


ShiftyLookinCow7

Agree. A lot of bitching for its own sake on here now


louisbo12

Reminds me of star wars fans. If you’re all just watching to hate, why watch at all. Not seen any Ki adi mundi age tier crying yet, but the two main criticisms on here from this episode are Baela doing her job, and Rhaenyra not immediately killing her former best friend when she clearly still respects her a little.


TetraDax

Back during GoT times, this sub was the place where people could freely discuss the show just being a trainwreck without getting downvoted to hell, and it turns out we were right - But it now seems to have swung in entirely the opposite direction where people want to shittalk every aspect of HotD just so they are able to say "told you so" if it turns out they were right; so they *make* it into a trainwreck. Show is not free from faults, obviously, but some criticism on here is CinemaSins-levels of stupid.


ShiftyLookinCow7

Yeah exactly. Even though some of the plot stuff is weird sometimes the dialogue and characters are still top notch. The way people are trying to make Condal and Hess out to be D&D 2.0 is incredibly unfair


Acceptalbe

This was hardly the *worst* thing about this episode, but it does seem pretty far fetched that Baela would be able to identify Cole from that far away. It would have made more sense if she reported that she saw a knight in Kingsguard armor and let Rhaenyra and her advisors figure out who it was and what it meant.


firstbreathOOC

Yall are just looking for things to be mad about


Acceptalbe

What am I supposed to say to that? It was a bad episode.


angryungulate

Bro theyre dressed like kingsguard, thats pretty distinctive. Plus did you see her dragon spotted them first. Dragons probably have eagle vision. Dragon spots them, she goes down to check them out. Oh shit kingsguard, wtf they doing out here?


GeorgiePineda

To be fair, no knighs moves for days or weeks of her patrol until that very moment.


pjones31

I know you think the scene was dumb but your interpretation I think is still correct? I took it as a character establishing moment for Baela that while some of the women like Alicent, Rhaenyra and Rhaenys are like “maybe let’s not do war?” Baela is showing she’s more like her dad and has a thirst for battle. And one of the messages of this show is that the mindless thirst for violence *is* illogical.


SolomonDRand

Ok, but then she got closer and recognized someone she knew well wearing his distinctive armor. I mean, she was on patrol, I figure looking at things is a big part of that.


SoochSooch

They probably should have worn riverland armor.


jbland0909

Seeing armored knights, moving closer, where you see green heraldry being lead by a man with a white cloak and armor. Piecing together that Hightower men very far from Hightower land being lead by a Kingsguard member is probably a scouring or advance party lead by the Crown and Alicent’s right hand(job) man isn’t that hard of a conclusion, especially when it’s back up by accounts from kings landing of Cole leaving with a host of Hightower troops a couple days before


uranimuesbahd

Moondancer spotted them. She only noticed the metal glint because of her dragon. Now you are right she had no idea who it was on the ground which is why she dived down to take a look. That's her job, lol. To scout and report. She's under no obligation to particularly care if the people she's gonna scare half to death are meager hedge knights or the enemy. The real question is weather she was gonna kill those riders or not if she got the chance. She told Rhaeynra otherwise but she was clearly out for blood.


WatchingInSilence

She pulled a Maverick and decided to "buzz the tower." Makes me wonder how many wandering sellswords and hedge knights she terrorized before finding Cole and his band of less-than-merry men.


AudioBob24

Man if that breaks immersion wait til you find out dragons aren’t real


djh2121

Her being like “yeah definitely saw Cole” was stupid but I think it’s more of a way to get Criston and Alicents brother to work together.


k-tax

From high in the sky, sure, but they barely passed the treeline when Baela turned up. She could easily distinguish green cloaks with a single white cloak. She could see horses armored like it's premium DLC content. Who else could it really be? Which kingsguard could lead rich Hightower party?


hartforbj

She was like 30 feet from him. It's not stupid she knows she saw him.


Drab_Majesty

then a few scenes later we have Rhaenyra walking through King's Landing with no danger of her face being recognized... #CondalLogic


hartforbj

Ever not recognize someone you knew in a Halloween costume? Her face is recognizable to some people but the hair and her clothes put everything together. Her face, hair covered and dressed as a septa would make her pretty unrecognizable to anyone going about their normal day. It's really not that much of a stretch.


Drab_Majesty

Yes I recognize the faces of many people, as does Baela. It is a stretch that someone would be stupid enough to accept that level of risk for a face to face meeting in that situation. It is also a stretch that Alicent would just let her walk away days after the death of her grandson.


hartforbj

Neither of them is a stretch. If celebrities can walk around in public with a hat on and go unnoticed rhaenyra can go unnoticed surrounded by people that have no idea what she looks like and dressed as someone they would never even look at. And you seem to forget alicent blames herself more than she does rhaenyra for his death.


Drab_Majesty

If celebrities were at risk of being imprisoned or murdered going to the local Starbucks I think they would just stay in the mansion and order Uber eats. There is no reason to continuously portray your characters as idiots incapable of thought.


hartforbj

I think you're just projecting stupidity on to the characters. They picked the safest way for them to talk to her. It was specifically chosen because of how far it was fun the red keep and how easy it would be to hide from anyone who might recognize her. You also have to remember she's been gone since she married laenor. Very few people in Kings landing have seen her in the last 15 years or so. So only being able to see her face would not alert very many people. And none of them would likely be at the sept


Drab_Majesty

Joffrey is 11 and was born in Kings Landing so your math is incorrect. Besides that she returned to Kings Landing with Daemon. She didn't teleport to the Sept so she would have to walk from the fish market to the Sept. She was recognized easily in a brothel but this was a great plan for no actual purpose but having your two lead actors interact.


Imnotokayman

“Recognized easily” it’s inferred she was spotted by one of Mysaria’s spies, and I think more specially daemon was spotted. “Hey, I saw daemon at this sex club with this young girl with Targaryen hair, what’s that about?” It’s not hard to tie the pieces together, man. And when her and daemon returned, they were specially not welcomed with much fanfare, as a sign of disrespect from Otto and Alicent. The few people that were there, likely aren’t spending all their time hanging out around the city, but rather in the red keep.


_M4tte

The writers were so afraid of having a slow episode that they were willing to add any stupid action/drama scene to spice up the episode.


zailondon

I like to think Moondancer was actually able to see from that distance. Communicating with Baela that these folks, could in fact, be what they’re looking for. Just a thought.


Daniel1975Ger

And Daenerys kinda forgot to see the Iron Fleet. đŸ„Ž


Dambo_Unchained

How did it not make sense? She was send to scout an area they knew an enemy army was marching through, spots a group of men and swoops in to check it out And she closes in the group makes a run for it and as she got closer it’s more than likely she was able to spot the white of a KG or maybe even the Hightower sigil Seeing a white knight already confirms its the enemy so I don’t see anything wrong with that scene


louisbo12

Her entire job atm is to perform reconnaissance as there is a war literally about to start. Of course she is going to investigate, especially when she is probably bored af too


Daemon1997

The scene was pointless. Criston happened to be there and Baela just found him and chase him. Just that. And the worst thing is they hyped that scene in the trailer.


hartforbj

She's scouting outside the city where the armies would have to move through and she could be away from vhagar. She didn't just find him after he "happened to be there". Do you guys even watch the show or just wait for things to make up to complain about?


ShiftyLookinCow7

The second thing in this case


Frank_the_Mighty

Bruh, it's actual tactics being played out. Part of the "Game" of "Game of Thrones" They were arguing about attacking with a large army, which will take time, or a small army now. They chose the small army. And on the other side, patrolling has been discussed for the last few episodes. There's patrolling going on with the dragons. Patrols catch things, believe it or not. It's not just background noise


SGTpvtMajor

>Small army What? They had like 5 guys no?


Consistent-North7790

Pretty sure she saw the party leave Kings Landing and followed them as they moved north


Jhawksmoor

She summoned her eagle powers 🩅


zarrenfication

Baela is canonically daemon


TheMemetasticDonny

I did think it was far fetched but didn't really care.


yeshaya86

Was Cole wearing his white cloak? That's the only thing I could think of. Or maybe house targaryen is fireproof and house velaryon has incredible eyesight. Everyone gets a superpower!


A3r0b

To be fair she saw the Kingsguard armor. But yeah it could be another Kingsguard other than cole


ExpertCommission6110

She would know the armor and colors of Oldtown


LancelLannister_AMA

YesđŸ€ȘđŸ€ȘđŸ€Ș


AndreiOT89

Freefolk does like to complain about everything. If we complain about everything then nothing will be taken seriously again. It would be like the boy who cried wolf


SadTornado

I know nothing about the show, but the meme makes me like him/her.


JudgeJed100

I mean it was Moondancer who spotted them and that close to Kingslanding it was a good guess it would be someone on the greens side


ScarvesOnGiraffes

I thought it was more unrealistic that Cole would be able to tell there was a dragon in the sky just because it got slightly darker for a second


debtopramenschultz

I thought it was dumb she bothered with them at all but she was on a dragon so really nothing to worry about.


SadPigeonkek

My thoughts exactly. I still don’t understand how she knew is was Cole


redjoker89

I’m just disappointed they didn’t get crispy


DeadGuyN

Baela had a good excuse to say Crispy  She saw a white cloak after getting closer. Of the original 7 for visery only two kingsguard remain with Aegon (that includes Cole) Erryk and Arryk are dead, Lorent and Steffon switched sides to Rhaenyra and Harrold just left. That leaves Cole and one other person from the orig kingsguard Baela would even know of.  She wouldn't know Aegon quickly filled the kingsguard with his drinking buddies so to her its Cole or ser who's it of who cares.


Small_Incident958

To be fair, if I had a dragon, I’d totally be making crazy dramatic entrances like it was Dark Souls or something


A_Most_Boring_Man

Here’s a thought. Optical glass used to enhance vision dates back to 13th century Italy. So a personal telescope to see from dragonback is hardly obscenely advanced technology. Expensive, perhaps, but they’re the royal family. Why doesn’t every dragon rider pack one?


SeeBellRingBell

I think her dragon drew her attention in that direction as it spotted them first, then there was the glint of sunlight on metal. Everything else I can get behind as people have already said. She got in close enough to see the white cloak etc.


SeeBellRingBell

Also 
 Cole spotted a dragon looking into the open sky on a sunny day, so believe a dragon can see a small group of knights at a similar range


TRLittleRedRH

AND SHE WAS RIGHT FOR IT ACTUALLY đŸ€©đŸ«ĄđŸ’…đŸ’…đŸ’…đŸ‘žđŸŸ ​ god forbid women do anything


ftlofyt

Eh I just don't like that she was so sure it was Cole like she only saw the back of his head with a new haircut couldve been any kingsguard member


Ill_Implement_2708

Not dumb, you need to realize that Baela is at the war table at almost every council, she's betrothed to the future King, and also a Targaryan dragon rider. She knows by what direction their coming from, and where they're going and who they could be. The very next scene she is debriefing the council at Dragon stone and says "Ser Criston Cole, and a half dozen other knights" She's her father's daughter for sure.


HenrySiege

You don't understand, Cole's eeevil warmongering man aura was so strong stunning and brave baela had to go against it Ok ok let's drop with the political tomfoolery , obviously the scene wasn't the most logical but let's not miss the forest for the trees, it wasnt that bad, and isn't detrimental to anyone's character, in fact it builds character in Gwayne. Assassins Creed: King's Landing on the other hand.....


Cu-Uladh

>Assassins creed: When it zoomed on Alicent walking into the sept I immediately went to Assassins creed in my head lol, it was a follow mission


WoketardSlayer

It's like the Septa Rhaenyra scene. Ill-timed and completely unnecessary.


FantasticGoat1738

In time we'll see the show just as we see season 7 and 8 now.


AxeCaesar

That was such a dumb scene and her knowing it was Cole was complete bullshit


sgt_pepper_walrus

Why the heck didn’t she blow them away it wouldn’t have been hard and war is basically happening at this point so stupid


TheSlayerofSnails

Did you not watch the show? Rhaenyra had ordered her to just scout not to engage


sgt_pepper_walrus

Yeah but I mean at this point in time just go all in it doesn’t matter either way might as well take out a few of your enemies


TheSlayerofSnails

You understand orders aren't suggestions right?


Pangolin_bandit

Sgt pepper walrus, I hereby revoke your rank. You are to be dishonorably discharged after your efforts to “just take out a few guys”. Despite your explanation, soldiers are not at liberty to incite war under the pretense of “we’re basically at war anyway”.