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

[Kal-El814]

Maybe these showrunners will be competent enough to not actually waterboard someone during filming.

[skillzdadirecta]

43 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

Maybe these showrunners will be competent enough to not actually waterboard someone during filming.

Did that happen???

[BloodyHell]

That made me far more excited than I was, which is very unexpected, as I had major problems with GoT's last 3 seasons (turning Daeneris wasn't one of them, that was foreshadowed forever). 

To this day I can't understand why HBO didn't step in when it was clear they were destroying the franchise in s7 and 8. 

But I still want this, and even more now. It looked very well done.

[Kal-El814]

20 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Did that happen???

 

Yes.

 

'Game of Thrones' actress says she was 'waterboarded' for 10 hours filming torture scene

EW.COM

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Hannah Waddingham says she was 'waterboarded' for 10 hours while filming her torture scene on 'Game of Thrones.'

 

[Greatoneshere]

Meh, I don't know if I care at this point. I'll see what reviews from critics and audiences say.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

Yes.

 

'Game of Thrones' actress says she was 'waterboarded' for 10 hours filming torture scene

EW.COM

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Hannah Waddingham says she was 'waterboarded' for 10 hours while filming her torture scene on 'Game of Thrones.'

 

[Fizzzzle]

I'll watch it, because I'll pretty much watch anything with medieval combat at least once, but I'm not necessarily that excited for it.

 

I wish they could do a series where they actually made Valyrians look... well, Valyrian. Valyrians are basically GRRM's version of Elves. They're supposed to be almost ethereal looking. Tall, really pale, silver-gold or white hair, purple eyes. It makes sense for GoT, since by that time in the story, Daenerys, Viserys, and Rhaegar are really only like 5% Valyrian. During the Dance of the Dragons, you still have like half-blood Valyrians running around. They should look more different.

[Brick]

2 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

I'll watch it, because I'll pretty much watch anything with medieval combat at least once, but I'm not necessarily that excited for it.

 

I wish they could do a series where they actually made Valyrians look... well, Valyrian. Valyrians are basically GRRM's version of Elves. They're supposed to be almost ethereal looking. Tall, really pale, silver-gold or white hair, purple eyes. It makes sense for GoT, since by that time in the story, Daenerys, Viserys, and Rhaegar are really only like 5% Valyrian. During the Dance of the Dragons, you still have like half-blood Valyrians running around. They should look more different.

 

Probably just a cost thing. Sure a wig is simple enough, but anything that would require a lot of prosthetic makeup or CGI would be too much for any lead actor to have to put on every single day. Like I know in the books Tyrion loses his whole nose, but do you really think they were going to do that to Peter Dinklage? It's much easier, quicker, and cost effective to just give him a scar across his face.

[skillzdadirecta]

1 hour ago, Brick said:

 

Probably just a cost thing. Sure a wig is simple enough, but anything that would require a lot of prosthetic makeup or CGI would be too much for any lead actor to have to put on every single day. Like I know in the books Tyrion loses his whole nose, but do you really think they were going to do that to Peter Dinklage? It's much easier, quicker, and cost effective to just give him a scar across his face.

Same with Rick on Walking Dead. In the books he loses a hand fairly early in the story but they never did that on the show for practical reasons.

[Mercury33]

I still can’t get over that the “Shame Nun” and Rebecca from Ted Lasso are the same  fucking person

[Brian]

 

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[Dodger]

So I just finished GoT not the long ago and I remember when the final season was on people bitched about the ending, but I thought it was fine. Like it ended about as well as you reasonably could have expected. So what was the big controversy? I was almost dreading finishing it I remember so much bitching that they were really going to jump the shark but I thought it was done well enough. 

[skillzdadirecta]

10 minutes ago, Dodger said:

So I just finished GoT not the long ago and I remember when the final season was on people bitched about the ending, but I thought it was fine. Like it ended about as well as you reasonably could have expected. So what was the big controversy? I was almost dreading finishing it I remember so much bitching that they were really going to jump the shark but I thought it was done well enough. 

The main issue with the ending was that it felt rushed. Like Khaleesi's heel turn felt abrupt and some of the storylines were rushed to meet the ending. That was my personal issue. Also book readers were pissed that a lot of their head canon didn't come true.

[SimpleG]

3 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

The main issue with the ending was that it felt rushed. Like Khaleesi's heel turn felt abrupt and some of the storylines were rushed to meet the ending. That was my personal issue.

I typed out a long reply but I deleted it cause ya , this was monstrous fault of the story and more less ruined it for me. Theres a ton wrong with last few seasons but this one was the worse.

[johnny]

Being able to binge it definitely helps since you're already watching many episodes at once it kinda all feels fast for the most part 

[Fizzzzle]

That was my problem. I expected a heel turn from Daenerys after reading Dance with Dragons. She clearly has a lot of obsessive, controlling, impulsive behavior that mirrors Cersei in a lot of ways. It's just that, in the show, they hardly ever hinted at it in a way that would make someone go "oh, no..." Like all of her episodes were triumphant moments, not something to be concerned about.

 

Other than Bran being king, which still doesn't really make sense to me, I don't have an issue with where everyone ended up, it was more how the show portrayed them getting there. They pretty much went from A to Z with a lot of characters. Also... what the hell with Arya? Her whole arc ultimately meant nothing. She used her faceless man training exactly once in a way that actually affected the story, and we spent like THREE SEASONS building that up for her. Then, once she kills the Freys (who at that point in the story don't even really matter anymore), it's basically never mentioned again.

[skillzdadirecta]

10 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

That was my problem. I expected a heel turn from Daenerys after reading Dance with Dragons. She clearly has a lot of obsessive, controlling, impulsive behavior that mirrors Cersei in a lot of ways. It's just that, in the show, they hardly ever hinted at it in a way that would make someone go "oh, no..." Like all of her episodes were triumphant moments, not something to be concerned about.

 

Other than Bran being king, which still doesn't really make sense to me, I don't have an issue with where everyone ended up, it was more how the show portrayed them getting there. They pretty much went from A to Z with a lot of characters. Also... what the hell with Arya? Her whole arc ultimately meant nothing. She used her faceless man training exactly once in a way that actually affected the story, and we spent like THREE SEASONS building that up for her. Then, once she kills the Freys (who at that point in the story don't even really matter anymore), it's basically never mentioned again.

I think Arya's arc was to prepare her to be a warrior and killer in her own right.  She's a trained Water Dancer, a Faceless Man acolyte and she has whatever training she picked up from her time with The Hound. I wouldn't say her arc was pointless since ultimately she was the one who killed The Ice King or whatever he was called. But I agree with everything else you posted. Everyone got to where they should probably be, but how they got there was forced and rushed. I didn't buy Jon and Khaleesi's love affair either because that wasn't given enough time to develop either.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Game of Thrones ended with the ultra-shitty "woman with power goes stark raving mad" trope, so to hell with everything about the show (and by extension the novels because that's exactly the ending that GRRM intends).

[skillzdadirecta]

31 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Game of Thrones ended with the ultra-shitty "woman with power goes stark raving mad" trope, so to hell with everything about the show (and by extension the novels because that's exactly the ending that GRRM intends).

And I thought the clues he was dropping that were leading up to that ending were going to be subverted.  Was so disappointed to see that was not the case.

[Chairslinger]

It's really hard to see Smith as anything but the Doctor.

 

Like in the big "scary dragon breath fire" scene I keep expecting him to sweep off his cloak, straighten his bowtie, pull out his sonic screwdriver and scream "time to go" as the TARDIS materializes in the background.....

[Greatoneshere]

The final two seasons sucked ass. The intelligent plotting of the first few seasons goes straight out the window and every character becomes either nonsensical or reductive.

[SoberChef]

So I have to be the one BUT ... doesn't Matt have a weird face?

[TheLeon]

15 hours ago, SoberChef said:

So I have to be the one BUT ... doesn't Matt have a weird face?

He was never the most conventionally handsome guy, but this hair really isn’t doing him any favors.

[SoberChef]

 

[Pikachu]

 

Quote

All the dragons roar as one. The #HouseoftheDragon trailer has arrived. House of the Dragon premieres August 21 on HBO Max.

 

[SoberChef]

Who's that dude with the eye patch!? Solid Snake confirmed?

 

Seriously though, god fucking dammit HBO you got me invested & caring in the GoT IP again ... please for all that is good & sacred, DO NOT LET ME DOWN!

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Inside ‘House of the Dragon’: The Battle to Replace ‘Game of Thrones’

WWW.HOLLYWOODREPORTER.COM

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A behind-the-scenes chronicle of HBO’s years-long campaign to franchise its biggest hit of all time, featuring warring pitches, an abandoned pilot, tackled controversies and the George R.R. Martin superfan who earned the keys to the kingdom.

 

 

Inside ‘House of the Dragon’ Part 2: “It’s a Powerful, Dark, Shakespearean Tragedy”

WWW.HOLLYWOODREPORTER.COM

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The two-part report continues on the set of 'Dragon': The cast opens up about their characters, the showrunners explain how the new series tackles issues of race and sexual violence, and a look at the franchise’s future. Plus, the show's new official trailer.

 

Quote

 

The Santa Fe-based Martin flew to Los Angeles to meet with HBO executives. He initially pitched two ideas. The first was a series based on his relatively lighthearted Dunk and Egg novellas, which follow a knight who wanders Westeros with a young squire. The second was called The Dance of the Dragons, which chronicled the storied civil war among Daenerys Targaryen’s ancestors, an affair that tore Westeros apart 180 years before the events in Thrones. “Dance had all the intrigue, competition for the Iron Throne, murders, duels, big battles, 20 dragons — all of that stuff,” Martin says.

 

HBO passed on Dunk and Egg (initially, at least). Executives liked Dance, yet didn’t want to let the fate and fortune of a potential franchise ride on a single idea. “I wanted to give ourselves every chance of success,” Bloys says. “You don’t want to say, ‘We’re going to replace the biggest show of all time and it’s all going to rest on one script.’”

 

The network researched Martin’s collective works and compiled about 15 possible prequel concepts. Since Thrones showrunners Benioff and Weiss had declined to be involved with any spinoffs, HBO met with a diverse array of writers. “We tried everything,” Bloys says. “There were no ideas too weird.”

Well, maybe one: A series concept that sounds like a superhero team-up about the fabled Seven Gods of Westeros as if they were actual people. The premise followed a Father, Smith, Warrior, etc. as they had adventures and came to be worshipped as gods. “That didn’t get very far,” an insider says dryly.

 

Five concepts were eventually selected and put into development. All were prequels set before the events in Thrones. This unprecedented bake-off approach would become cheekily known online as The War of the Five Pitches.

 

One effort was a script about the destruction of the ancient Targaryen empire of Valyria by Max Borenstein (Kong: Skull Island), another was a take on the Dornish warrior queen Nymeria by Oscar winner Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential) and yet another — like much in this story, never before reported — was about Aegon’s conquest of Westeros and penned by Rand Ravich and Far Shariat (The Astronaut’s Wife). That script portrayed the William the Conqueror-inspired figure as a drunken lout.

 

 

[Greatoneshere]

I see the media hype train has already been pre-paid to help sell this expensive show I still can't seem to give one damn about. I hope it's good, and if after a full season people are raving about it, then I'll check it out. But they have a lot to prove and I just can't help but care about a prequel to a show that ends so poorly as to make you not care about anything that led up to that ending for a prequel to matter to me. 

 

We won't get it but I'd rather just get the 6th and 7th books, hope they're good, and move on in life.  

[BloodyHell]

So, is this taking place in Westeros?

I don't believe Valria had an Iron throne, that was created in Kings Landing. I always thought this was set in Valyria.

[BloodyHell]

1 hour ago, Greatoneshere said:

I see the media hype train has already been pre-paid to help sell this expensive show I still can't seem to give one damn about. I hope it's good, and if after a full season people are raving about it, then I'll check it out. But they have a lot to prove and I just can't help but care about a prequel to a show that ends so poorly as to make you not care about anything that led up to that ending for a prequel to matter to me. 

 

We won't get it but I'd rather just get the 6th and 7th books, hope they're good, and move on in life.  

We are never getting Book 7. Theres no way he lives long enough to write it.

[Greatoneshere]

37 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

We are never getting Book 7. Theres no way he lives long enough to write it.

 

I did say "we won't get it".   I think, and given his recent words oddly enough last week on this, I think Martin is disappointed the show ruined his magnum opus. I believe he believes (correctly or not) that the stain of the end of the show has left a lasting tainted mark on his legacy for his epic series, and if he writes any ending similar to the show, even if done really well given the books are significantly different, he knows either a) no one will care; or b) it won't be good enough; or c) it'll resemble the ending of the show in enough ways that people hate it. It's sad to think about, as I was into the books long before the show in the 1990's, but I truly think he doesn't see a way out anymore which is why his focus seems to be on everything but the mainline story people care about.

 

George R.R. Martin's Next Book Will Diverge from HBO's 'Game of Thrones'

WWW.ESQUIRE.COM

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"Some things will be the same," the author said. "A lot will not.”

 

The final few paragraphs of the article about gardening, his obsession with indicating it will be different from the show, the fact the way he writes things are changing constantly, he sounds all over the place. I think the final few seasons of the show bothers him personally. He has said elsewhere he should have finished the books before the show went off book. Now why would he care about that unless he wants the book series' reputation solidified before the show went off book, eventually becoming bad? Someone very worried and depressed the show ruined his magnum opus/masterpiece.

 

Imagine there was a TV show that went off book with Lord of the Rings before Return of the King (the book) came out but after Fellowship and Two Towers, and the show adapts the first two books correctly but then the show totally ruined the characters, etc. by going off book. If most people hated it and then you're an author who was writing an epic who now needs to finish it after it being tainted - that's a tall order and a lot of pressure.

 

George RR Martin 'wishes' he had finished books before Game of Thrones ended | Books | Entertainment | Express.co.uk

WWW.EXPRESS.CO.UK

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GEORGE RR MARTIN has spoken out about his book franchise, A Song of Ice and Fire, and admitted to regretting letting the HBO show Game of Thrones get ahead of his novels. Now, the race is on for the writer to finish his latest novel, Winds of Winter.

 

[johnny]

i’m in 

 

 

couldn’t care less about him finishing the books. it’s dudes own fault. i’m not reading those long ass descriptive things anyway. if you love them i’m not hating on you, but that shit ain’t for me.

 

thought game of thrones was still fine when they outran the books until they decided to completely rush everything because the showrunners wanted to move on. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

1 hour ago, BloodyHell said:

So, is this taking place in Westeros?

I don't believe Valria had an Iron throne, that was created in Kings Landing. I always thought this was set in Valyria.

 

Yes, it's set in Westeros.

 

A series set in Valyria was one of the rejected pitches.

[TheLeon]

This is dumb, but I’m going to have a hard time taking this show seriously when like 90% of the main cast has that ridiculous white hair, especially The Doctor.