Television House of the Dragon (HBO, August 21) - update: first reviews posted

[GeneticBlueprint]

1 hour ago, Jwheel86 said:

The other interesting lore question is can someone claim Laenor's dragon Sea Smoke, even though Laenor isn't really dead? 

 

The lore is that the rider needs to die and even then it's not likely they'll let somebody else ride them. Who knows if fake deaths work?

[Moa]

Damon, based ally.

[Greatoneshere]

Well, battle lines are certainly being drawn. Another solid episode, though the amount of bullshit everyone puts up with when it comes to Alicent is bordering on unconscionable. It's pretty clear Aegon spearheaded Aemond getting bullied with the pig, not Rhaenyra's children. It's also pretty clear Aemond started the fight with Laena's daughters, and Rhaenyra's kids stepped in to help and intervene, and it was Aemond who escalated things first by picking up a huge rock, the knife didn't come out until after that. The fact no one bothers to get to the bottom of this so that proper blame can be placed on Aemond and Alicent is super frustrating. 

 

However, on the other hand, those are bastard children, so legally they don't have standing to the throne once Rhaenyra dies unless she has more kids with Daemon now.

[MarSolo]

On 10/3/2022 at 10:49 PM, Greatoneshere said:

Well, battle lines are certainly being drawn. Another solid episode, though the amount of bullshit everyone puts up with when it comes to Alicent is bordering on unconscionable. It's pretty clear Aegon spearheaded Aemond getting bullied with the pig, not Rhaenyra's children. It's also pretty clear Aemond started the fight with Laena's daughters, and Rhaenyra's kids stepped in to help and intervene, and it was Aemond who escalated things first by picking up a huge rock, the knife didn't come out until after that. The fact no one bothers to get to the bottom of this so that proper blame can be placed on Aemond and Alicent is super frustrating. 

 

However, on the other hand, those are bastard children, so legally they don't have standing to the throne once Rhaenyra dies unless she has more kids with Daemon now.

It’s funny, that whole shit show reminded me of the fight between Joffrey and the stable boy that Arya was sword playing with, where it didn’t even matter that Joffrey was being a shit, one of the wolves and the stable boy needed to be killed for it.

[Greatoneshere]

9 minutes ago, MarSolo said:

It’s funny, that whole shit show reminded me of the fight between Joffrey and the stable boy that Arya was sword playing with, where it didn’t even matter that Joffrey was being a shit, one of the wolves and the stable boy needed to be killed for it.

 

I thought the same thing. It also contrasts Viserys and Robert Baratheon as kings (given their many similarities) in that VIserys stops any sort of retributive punishment to happen, whereas Ned Stark does his duty for honor and kills the dire wolf by comparison (contrasting again honor/duty does not always equal the right thing to do). 

[Firewithin]

King white walker

[Guest]

Daeomon hasn’t forgot how to a swing a sword 😳

[johnny]

god this show is so good. i yelled when daemon killed that dude 

[skillzdadirecta]

Paddy Considine better win some goddamned awards.

[69los]

5 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Paddy Considine better win some goddamned awards.

 

The last thing he'll probably remember was finally seeing his family happy together yet, out of his wits, he intentionally will drive them apart with his final words.

[GeneticBlueprint]

Dark Sister putting in work. Too bad Vaemond honestly had the right of the situation but then got killed for it. It's cool seeing Daemon being Daemon though.

 

7 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Paddy Considine better win some goddamned awards.

 

For reals. He was like Boromir getting filled with arrows but summoning all his strength to protect what's important in that throne room scene.

[johnny]

 

[skillzdadirecta]

2 hours ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

Dark Sister putting in work. Too bad Vaemond honestly had the right of the situation but then got killed for it. It's cool seeing Daemon being Daemon though.

I normally don't watch the post episode commentary for these shows but I have started with this series and this one was great. The actor whom played Vaemond had some great opinions on this sequence and why Vaemond went out the way he did. He also pointed out that Daemon killed him from behind and couldn't face him 

[Guest]

Daemon in the throne room scene was a good example of how he is both self-interested and a man of his family at the same time. I think he genuinely cared for his brother as he helped him up the steps onto the throne.

 

He also murdered a dude from behind to protect his own interests and pursuits 😂

[GoldenTongue]

Great episode. Couldn’t get over how Ewan Mitchell looks more like Matt Smith than Matt Smith does in the show 😂

[TwinIon]

Another solid episode that feels like it's finally bringing things to a head. I'm amazed that they kept the king alive for so long. I felt like he was destined for an early demise, but he had a few turns left to play in the grand game.

 

The one thing that I didn't really grasp was why Rhaenyra wanted to get back to Dragonstone so quick. Her father is clearly on his deathbed. The Hightowers are in control of the throne that she is supposed to possess as soon as he dies. A contested succession seems inevitable despite the king's best wishes, and her instinct is to flee? I suppose it's probably just another indication that she really doesn't care too much about the throne, and just wants to protect her kids.

 

It's probably also instructive that while her kids are struggling to learn high Velarion, the competing successor has been training in combat.

 

I suppose I just wish that Rhaenyra was better at playing the Game of Thrones than she seems to be. Yeah, she understands the political power of marriages, but beyond that hasn't shown much aptitude. Having obvious bastards has put her on her back foot, but she just keeps getting bailed out by her father, Daemon, and even Corlys. Maybe once the actually succession war starts she'll come into her own.

[GeneticBlueprint]

28 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

Daemon in the throne room scene was a good example of how he is both self-interested and a man of his family at the same time. I think he genuinely cared for his brother as he helped him up the steps onto the throne.

 

He also murdered a dude from behind to protect his own interests and pursuits 😂

 

He's a bastard. That's what makes him so fun.

[skillzdadirecta]

2 hours ago, TwinIon said:

 

The one thing that I didn't really grasp was why Rhaenyra wanted to get back to Dragonstone so quick. Her father is clearly on his deathbed. The Hightowers are in control of the throne that she is supposed to possess as soon as he dies. A contested succession seems inevitable despite the king's best wishes, and her instinct is to flee? I suppose it's probably just another indication that she really doesn't care too much about the throne, and just wants to protect her kids.

 

I think this was to indicate that she felt secure enough that she and the Hightowers had made peace and that everything was good and they were going to not contest her ascension. 

 

EDIT: What disease was the king suffering from? Leprosy?

[SimpleG]

1 hour ago, skillzdadirecta said:

I think this was to indicate that she felt secure enough that she and the Hightowers had made peace and that everything was good and they were going to not contest her ascension. 

 

EDIT: What disease was the king suffering from? Leprosy?

Correct 

[johnny]

3 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

I think this was to indicate that she felt secure enough that she and the Hightowers had made peace and that everything was good and they were going to not contest her ascension. 

 

EDIT: What disease was the king suffering from? Leprosy?

i kinda thought she was worried about her kids safety and wanted to get them away from things when shit hits the fan 

[TheLeon]

I feel like I’ve been saying this for weeks, but I think I’ll like this show a lot more once the timeline slows down and I’ll have an easier time tracking all these characters. It’s especially hard with the kids. 

[skillzdadirecta]

George R.R. Martin to Paddy Considine: Your Viserys Was Better Than My Viserys - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

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House of the Dragon star Paddy Considine talked about his interpretation of Viserys Targaryen, saying that George R. R. Martin told him he prefers his live-action interpretation to the one from the books.

 

[Greatoneshere]

2 hours ago, TheLeon said:

I feel like I’ve been saying this for weeks, but I think I’ll like this show a lot more once the timeline slows down and I’ll have an easier time tracking all these characters. It’s especially hard with the kids. 

 

Will it slow down? I haven't read Fire & Blood, the novel that is a "history" of this time period, but it's already had a 10 year time jump and a 6 year time jump so I imagine there'll be more.

[TheLeon]

17 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Will it slow down? I haven't read Fire & Blood, the novel that is a "history" of this time period, but it's already had a 10 year time jump and a 6 year time jump so I imagine there'll be more.

I haven’t read it either, but I keep hearing that everything we’ve seen so far has been the setup for the “real” story, which is why it’s been moving so fast. I guess I assumed that meant that we will eventually hit a point where the setup ends and we can spend some significant time in whatever the real “Dance of Dragons” is. 

[skillzdadirecta]

33 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Will it slow down? I haven't read Fire & Blood, the novel that is a "history" of this time period, but it's already had a 10 year time jump and a 6 year time jump so I imagine there'll be more.

It will definitely slow down as we move into the Dance of Dragons, the war between the two Targeryan factions following Vieserys' death. The question for me is how long they can keep that story going and for how many seasons. My guess is the Dance of Dragons will be a couple of seasons of the show, maybe 3 or 4 and then they'll move onto another period of Targeryan rule. Fire and Blood covers the whole 300 year history of reign of the Targeryans. One volume has been released and a second volume is supposedly coming 

[Moa]

Oh shit there are TWO Geralts now.

[Greatoneshere]

2 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

It will definitely slow down as we move into the Dance of Dragons, the war between the two Targeryan factions following Vieserys' death. The question for me is how long they can keep that story going and for how many seasons. My guess is the Dance of Dragons will be a couple of seasons of the show, maybe 3 or 4 and then they'll move onto another period of Targeryan rule. Fire and Blood covers the whole 300 year history of reign of the Targeryans. One volume has been released and a second volume is supposedly coming 

 

According to George R.R. Martin, House of the Dragon will take about 4 seasons to tell its story, and that includes the Dance of the Dragons. So I think it will both slow down but we'll definitely see more time jumps.

 

'House of the Dragon': George R.R. Martin Says It'll Take Four Seasons to Tell the Targaryens' Story

COLLIDER.COM

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“If House of the Dragon had 13 episodes per season, maybe we could have shown all the things we had to time jump.”

 

[skillzdadirecta]

1 hour ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

According to George R.R. Martin, House of the Dragon will take about 4 seasons to tell its story, and that includes the Dance of the Dragons. So I think it will both slow down but we'll definitely see more time jumps.

 

'House of the Dragon': George R.R. Martin Says It'll Take Four Seasons to Tell the Targaryens' Story

COLLIDER.COM

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“If House of the Dragon had 13 episodes per season, maybe we could have shown all the things we had to time jump.”

 

Yeah I don't see how there could be more than four or five season to tell the Dance of Dragons. I doubt if there are anymore time jumps THIS season but there may be more coming in upcoming seasons.

[Guest]

I really liked the structure of that episode.

 

Looking forward to some dragon fights

[Firewithin]

that score for the entire episode was so good

[Moa]

I really liked the choice of focus for this episode. It would've been so easy to immediately go to the black vs the green but it's so much more interesting to see how the greens immediately start to subdivide and infight.

[TwinIon]

Another good episode. Definitely a couple characters that will be regretting their choices to hold back here. Especially Princess Rhaenys. If she was going to go along with the Hightower succession plan, sure seems like interrupting their big moment wasn't the best way to ingratiate yourself with the new monarch. Assuming that her flying off to Dragonstone is her siding with Princess Rhaenyra, it sure seems like it would have been doing both of them a favor to light up all the Hightowers and usurpers in one dragons' breath. Also seems like Aemon has as much to fear from his brother as he does his nephews.

 

I'm sure neither of them were keen on public murders, but definitely feels like a decision they might regret sooner than later.

[skillzdadirecta]

"House Of The Dragon" Producer Sara Hess Said She Doesn't Understand Everyone's Obsession With Daemon: "He Ain't Paul Rudd"

WWW.YAHOO.COM

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"He’s become Internet Boyfriend in a way that baffles me. Not that Matt [Smith] isn’t incredibly charismatic and wonderful, and he’s incredible in the role,"...

 

@Greatoneshere

 

As far as the latest episode, while it was very well made I will admit I had a problem following the story and some of the characters' motivations and Rhaenys not stopping the coup right then and there made no sense to me at all. I don't believe that scenes was in the books and may have been a case of the writers writing themselves into a corner... they gave some lipservice as to why she didn't in the post episode discussion but it didn't really make sense to me. Hopefully the season ends strong though.

[Greatoneshere]

22 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

"House Of The Dragon" Producer Sara Hess Said She Doesn't Understand Everyone's Obsession With Daemon: "He Ain't Paul Rudd"

WWW.YAHOO.COM

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"He’s become Internet Boyfriend in a way that baffles me. Not that Matt [Smith] isn’t incredibly charismatic and wonderful, and he’s incredible in the role,"...

 

@Greatoneshere

 

As far as the latest episode, while it was very well made I will admit I had a problem following the story and some of the characters' motivations and Rhaenys not stopping the coup right then and there made no sense to me at all. I don't believe that scenes was in the books and may have been a case of the writers writing themselves into a corner... they gave some lipservice as to why she didn't in the post episode discussion but it didn't really make sense to me. Hopefully the season ends strong though.

 

Yeah I saw that article too - I must agree with the producer, though the director explains it some (though it still mystifies me). I also agree that Rhaenys' decision at the end didn't make sense and the explanation of "mother relates to mother" makes no sense when you consider war will make a lot of mothers lose their children.

[skillzdadirecta]

1 minute ago, Greatoneshere said:

the explanation of "mother relates to mother" makes no sense when you consider war will make a lot of mothers lose their children.

Also when you consider how many mothers, sons, daughters and other assorted family members she killed when she made her entrance in the first place... I guess the smallfolk don't count?