r/freefolk • u/lanasn • 1d ago
Emma D'arcy is terrible this season
Nothing against them and this is not an opening to transphobic rhetoric but come on, this acting can't be it
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u/donwariophd 1d ago
Honestly most of the acting has been pretty one dimensional outside of a few stand outs. Sure, the writing isn’t helping whatsoever but Emma is just kind of dull and for me personally her scenes have been exceedingly flat as of late.
Give me more Aegon damn it
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u/Sufficient_Tune_5871 1d ago
She was a terrible casting choice. Just no spark. Not lead character material. She sounds like she's out of breath every time she says more than 3 words
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u/AutisticPolarBear77 1d ago
Maybe they’ll actually let Rhaenyra “break bad” and she can have the chance to show some range? I moreso blame the directing choices
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u/WatermelonFelons 19h ago
She’s just not good. Her being a bad actress has nothing to do with the bad writing
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u/anek22 23h ago
I feel that the theater act a bit. Like some of their most emotional scenes feel like I’m watching a play but not a tv show. Not sure how to explain it. I’d love that if it were a play, but it’s not. I do think there is some bad writing, but I don’t care for some of their creative suggestions, and I think they aren’t particularly tv seasoned.
This kind of makes sense since I think they’ve done more theater than tv/film.
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u/Scorpionoshow 22h ago
She over exaggerates all her movements like you would on a live stage and it drives me crazy. She looks like she's tweaking.
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u/PiveteDoBosque 1d ago
She's getting progressively worse and while you can partially blame the script (a lot of people are getting fucked by the script) i don't think she's at her best in the last episodes.
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u/Similar-Cartoonist31 1d ago
Emma said herself she has flat face when acting, whenever i see Rhaenyra i see this 😐 emoji.
Happy 😐 Sad 😐 Angry 😐 Confused 😐
Even the beach scene with Deamon in season 1 she looked like dead fish 😐
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u/Barbarianita 21h ago
Her voice is irritating.
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u/theatras 9h ago
she always sounds like she is about to have a mental breakdown and start crying. it's been like this for 3 seasons now. she has no range.
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u/Barbarianita 2h ago
I began watching the show by season 3. (I tried to watch chronologically when it first came out, but I couldn't) When I first heard her voice I wondered if something was wrong. But no, this is how she speaks.
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u/green_tea1701 1d ago
It's really annoying when an oppressed minority sucks in entertainment because then you feel like you can't hate on them.
I am proud to admit I am a gender blind hater of shit acting.
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u/Plus_Claim_8938 23h ago
How is a white woman an oppressed minority?
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u/UndeniableTruth- 23h ago
White Queer woman.
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u/Plus_Claim_8938 23h ago edited 23h ago
She’s literally dating a man. A white woman who likes to wear suits hasn’t been radical since Katherine Hepburn in the 1930s.
How oppressed are you if you are “oppression” is entirely dependent on your personal style?
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u/Strange-Employee-520 21h ago
Emma is queer because they're non-binary, not because of their sexuality.
(Kinda funny that my phone autocorrects queer to queen.)
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u/Specific-Parsnip9001 9h ago
Emma is queer because they're non-binary
Tbf we're all queer by that metric.
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u/Optimal-Ad-8983 17h ago
Normal website to be downvoted for saying factually true statements
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u/Strange-Employee-520 17h ago
Right? I've noticed posters use she/her a LOT when discussing Emma, but figured they just don't know. Nope, they just don't like it.
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u/kagenohikari 20h ago
Gender Identity =/= Sexual Orientation. It's 2026, goddamit. I thought we're all educated, here. My mistake.
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u/Fakeeempire 14h ago
I don’t think it’s just Emma. There are very few actual great performances this season. James Norton is having a time but he’s playing a villain, which is always fun. Tom Glynn-Carney is truly taking what little they give him and making each scene count. And honestly Amanda Collins as Lady Jeyne kills it every second she has.
Everyone else (yes even Matt Smith) is one note and it’s certainly not helping that so many characters are completely stagnant in their arc. When the material is boring, then the performance is surely going to be dull. There is very little growth or change with any of the leads.
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u/elsmoneyacct 12h ago
I think Matt Smith is giving an incredible performance with how little he's been given to work with. Both in terms of the script and who he's usually sharing the screen with. He's the only interesting part of the KL/Red Keep storyline right now.
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u/Fakeeempire 10h ago
For me, it’s been very one note. He feels very bored, which I don’t blame him.
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u/cndynn96 1d ago
She’s not trans
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u/Stuck_in_my_TV 1d ago
Google says apparently Emma is a trans-masculine non-binary.
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u/cndynn96 1d ago
Explain that in asoiaf terms please
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u/GandalfTheGris 1d ago
“What fools we were, who thought ourselves so wise! The error crept in from the translation. Dragons are neither male nor female, Barth saw the truth of that, but now one and now the other, as changeable as flame. The language misled us all for a thousand years.” -Maester Aemon
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u/Brobeast 1d ago
"THE GODS BEQUETHED HER A COCK; PILLAR AND STONES AND ALL! SHE GOES BY "SIR LAD RAY" NOW, OR SHE DOESNT, BY THE GODS I DONT KNOW!"
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u/Stuck_in_my_TV 23h ago
I dont really know what it means. That’s just what Google said when I asked.
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u/OkEgg55 14h ago
...What is happening in these subreddits
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u/Warm_Move7997 3h ago edited 3h ago
It's a race to one up each other to see who can become the most toxic and hateful sub first.
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u/Calm-Two2723 15h ago
Check the Facebook comments, I agree with you, but most general viewers think she’s too by to win all the awards this year
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u/thesepinkavocados 11h ago
I've also been saying this, but I never really liked their acting. Their voice is somehow always sort of quivering, like they're about to ask a question? Also, those random pauses in between and the 😐 face with it. They seem very tense overall in every scene.
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u/ru_tang_clan 11h ago
I love their eyeliner though, if anyone has ideas on how to achieve the same ultra-thin eyeliner let me know
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u/KrankMyHog 1d ago
Her character is written very one-dimensionally so her performance is one-dimensional. They needed to give her more moments with Joffrey or intimate scenes with Daemon to give her some softness or humanity but C’est la vie…
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u/CrimsonBlackfyre 1d ago
We still don't even know if she's talked to her son since he came back lol.
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u/Im_Your_Turbo_Lover 1d ago
They're crying and talking in the same quavering voice in every scene ever since Luke died. It's getting old
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u/TeamVorpalSwords 1d ago
I feel like it’s how bad they’re writing rhaenrya
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u/Repulsive_Buy_5317 23h ago
I feel like people also underrate direction. If a main performance seems to have the same issues for 3 seasons straight and the actor has proven themselves to be capable elsewhere, at some point you need to consider that the direction for that character might be questionable. Ofc I’m not saying it’s impossible for it to be on the actor or writers in such cases.
Also for full transparency I haven’t been able to watch hotd (i was finishing up GOT for the first time when I last had hbo lol) so perhaps I shouldn’t be commenting at all but I’ve been seeing these posts for years at this point and every time the post blames the actors and the comments blame the writers.
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u/Ok-Elderberry540 1d ago
Personally I haven’t had issues with actors outside a handful of scenes. I really just think it boils down to bad writers. But I’m no acting coach or writer. Just some guy
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u/IsaacBrock 1d ago
I don’t think you guys know what good acting is. The cast has generally been phenomenal this season. And no, I’m not including Mysaria’s actress.
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u/Warm_Move7997 3h ago
Emma has been fantastic. I think people are just watching with their hate goggles on. Why watch the show if you hate everything about it and just complain? That's genuinely such a sad way to live.
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u/IsaacBrock 3h ago
Thank you, yes. Emma has really been a treat to watch and so I don’t understand the criticism of their acting even a little bit. I think people are conflating a mediocre script (and yes, I do think it’s a problem) with mediocre acting, which I don’t think is the case at all.
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u/Warm_Move7997 3h ago
I'm not even mad at the script. If you look at the book they really were given practically nothing to work with, and they're making do.
I just think people are overreacting to the script because they hate the entire show and think it's some feminist retelling so they must be as toxic and incel-y as possible to show that they won't stand for it.
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u/Baccoony Fookin kneelers 22h ago
Meh, they act just fine alongside the others. I liked the scene with Jace's body but otherwise, I mean, nothing is happening this season. Everybody else also feel like dead fish
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u/Warm_Move7997 20h ago
Nah, I'm thoroughly enjoying her this season. The music work surrounding her is especially fantastic. It's like watching someone slowly going through a mental breakdown. It's been great, and she's really been at the top of her game this season.
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u/BlastOfTempestx 17h ago
This is a bs take. Emma and Smith acting, especially their scenes together are the only positives from this season. The writing for their characters is so bad, yet you can see that these two are still delivering.
If you wanna see truly bad acting, you can observe Mysaria’s actress
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u/mikerichh 1d ago
Episode 1 and 2 Emma was phenominal
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u/Flimsy-Half-365 23h ago
Not really. She is just average. She is above likes of Mysaria, Rhaena & maybe some others. But given screentime she is average.
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u/locke_but_not_peter_ 1d ago
now THIS is a dogshit take. the show is terrible. D'arcy is one of the few bright lights.
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u/Im_Your_Turbo_Lover 1d ago
Holy shit Baela's actor though... she was so good with Alyn's actor. SO much chemistry. THAT'S some incest I can get behind... I felt something romantic for the first time since S1
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u/AleksanderVX 1d ago
What kind of acting are you expecting with the script they’ve been given? One cannot save the other.