House of the Dragon (GoT Prequel)

[Ashasx]

This episode gets a thumbs down from me. The different two new actors were jarring and felt nothing like the characters we were left off with in episode 5.

I understand 10 years have passed, but the only time they felt like the same characters was when Rhaenyra told Laenor to bring his boyfriend to Dragonstone.

[blankall]

People are saying it was too jumpy? If anything, I found the problem was that things weren't moving fast enough. They are almost painfully building up the rivalries amongst and within the competing claims for the throne. It was very much relationship focused.

I really didn't find the new actors all that jarring either. I actually found it pretty realistic. If you've ever not seen someone for 10 years, and they've had multiple children in that period, they almost always look and act considerably different than the person they were 10 years ago. At my last high school reunion all of the party girls were now toned down (and often judgmental/right wing) mother types.

I liked the episode overall. The only part I didn't get was Laena's death by fire. She seemed like type to make every effort to try and save her child. At first, I thought it was some kind of trial by fire for the infant baby, where if baby was a true Targaryon, he would survive the fire. They made a point of showing Daemon flying through fire unscathed. I assumed it was her way of burning her own body and preserving Daemon's (potentially) fire proof baby.

Apparently though, Targaryans are not fire proof, and Dany was a one off.

[Sr. Mints]

There are a couple big problems for me so far

The first is that nobody on the show is likable yet. I'm not rooting for anybody. Rhaenyra was growing on me at times, but suddenly a new actress and we're back to square one.

The second problem, the show has far fewer characters than are needed. More time is spent with who we've got, watching them chew through scenes for eight minutes straight.

[OptimalTates]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

I can't decide if the Rhaenyra and Alicent recastings were necessary. the real life age differences are smaller than they are on the show, and basically everyone looks the same (some good genes there Ser Criston) except of course Viserys being even more haggard. maybe if the princess and queen actually looked like teenagers to begin with like the Velaryon kids it would have made the effort worth it, but honestly they should have just done makeup or something instead.

There's more time jumps. I'm terrible with faces and probably wouldn't have known that Alicent was recast at all if not for the voice change and Rhaenyra's recasting. Rhaenyra's was more jarring but probably less so than having Milly Alcock playing some 40 year old.

[bdubbs]

I'm loving this show, personally. I love that it's slower to build, and the time skip didn't really feel too bad to me. Criston Cole is such a whiny little b**** though. Hating Rhaenyra so badly that he'd treat her kids poorly, after just sleeping together once.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by bdubbs

I'm loving this show, personally. I love that it's slower to build, and the time skip didn't really feel too bad to me. Criston Cole is such a whiny little b**** though. Hating Rhaenyra so badly that he'd treat her kids poorly, after just sleeping together once.

Remember at the end of the last episode when Alicent went and stopped him from killing himself? I preusume there was a conversation there for him to fall fully in line behind her. So it has less to do with Rhaenyra and more to do with his "new" loyalty.

[bdubbs]

Oh, I remember that. Still takes a real piece of work to take it out on her kids, who are innocent of any of Rhaenyra's wrongdoings. But this is the Game of Thrones universe, so I can accept that someone would be like that.

[Inglewood Jack]

pretty disappointed in how little game Alicent seems to have played in the past decade. at Rhaenyra's wedding banquet she strolls in with the green dress declaration of war like a boss. but 10 years later it doesn't seem like she's done much other than poke Laenor about his kids and complain about how all of the children are bratty. like if she's not going to actively plot against the Targaryans to expose their secrets, at least raise sons that would be worthy of taking over when the time comes...or how about non window-jerkers, that's a nice low bar.

fake Littlefinger on the other hand is way too brazen to take the mantle of master schemer. Baelish almost never took action directly, he planted seeds and let everyone else do the dirty work of killing each other. Larys jailbreaks a dozen guys on death row (nobody's going to ask about that?) to do a kinslaying assassination job which would be tough to keep on the down low on its own. but then he also has to get their tongues processed, give them transportation, clothing, weaponry, Harrenhall security intel, and puts his own insect sigil on their cloaks. what the hell...nice work there, I'm sure nobody's going to figure it out.

[JeanLucPicard]

Originally Posted by DFO

I'm giving it one more episode before maybe bailing out. It seems like a lesser
GOT rehash with less compelling characters. Part of the problem there is so much content out there that it's hard to justify slogging through a mediocre show.

Yea, when you're making a tv show, it needs to be its own entity, you can't give bulls** reasons like oh there are time jumps so this is necessary to write plotlines and character actions that have zero development. It does not matter what the book is like, at all. A story needs to be written with characters fleshed out so we can actually relate to their actions and emotions, and motivations given a proper time to grow so its plausible and not disjointed.

The quality dip was so bad that it was actually worse than Rings of Power, which itself is a show written by someone who is in grade 10 and trying to make their English essay look pretty and failing.

I have a really bad taste in my mouth because I actually was getting into the show based on the first four episodes.

Never assume that people know ANYTHING about the context of the tv show, and anything about the book, when you create a script for a tv show. A recipe for disaster.

- end of rant -

[Esoteric]

Viserys is great - loved the "He's got his father's nose" line, when the kid clearly looks NOTHING like him, lmao.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

This episode gets a thumbs down from me. The different two new actors were jarring and felt nothing like the characters we were left off with in episode 5.

I understand 10 years have passed, but the only time they felt like the same characters was when Rhaenyra told Laenor to bring his boyfriend to Dragonstone.

Yeah this episode lost me a bit.

I thought the aging of the Queen was actually done okay - the actresses at least felt like they had similar mannerisms and personalities. It was realistic that it would just be her, but 10 years more jaded by this point.

Rhaenyra's new actress really lost me though. Didn't have any of that underlying fire or attitude that really was always present in the younger actress. Also the writing lost me a bit (I know there is some pre-written stuff here but still), she came off as very cunning and strategic in her younger days, and now she just seems like she has no sense to even try to be coy.

[Azure]

I am so confused. I watched the episode twice and I still have no clue what is going on. The story made sense till we basically got presented with new characters, babies that turned into children with a back story that nobody has a clue about, and other characters will agendas that make zero sense.

I get time compression, but this is worse than I figured it would be.

[FireGilbert]

I like the time jump as a way to move a sprawling story forward without relying on fast travel and putting characters into holding patterns. I don’t like the time jump for giving us a number of characters that show up for a small impact on the plot only to be quickly killed off.

Also I’ve had enough of the set up, let’s get to the civil war already.

[sureLoss]

Rhaenyra seemed to miss a very obvious thing... if all her children looked like they were fathered by another man that was close to her, that people would catch on. Not sure why she thought she could get away with it. Maybe because her father was blind to it over the last 10 years?

I do like Aegon II's character. A bratty teen in the midst of puberty being shocked to the reality that he and his siblings may die if Rhanerya ascends to the throne.

Daemon seems to have given up on his ambitions for the crown and is content to just be a dragon rider mercenary.

I think the series will really start to pop off once the king dies and that should be happening soon.

[Patek23]

This Rhaenyra was the first one cast so I guess this is how they intended the character to be. But the difference in appearance, voice and mannerisms is too much for me. Alicent's transition was seamless but Rhaenyra.... bit of a head scratcher.

[Nyah]

There's not a single character to route for in this show, even less so now with the new actors/characters after the time jump. These new actors haven't earned a thing and it's more distracing sinse some of the characters maintained the same actors?? I'm having a hard time staying invested in this story because I genuinely don't give a #### about any of them.

[PegCityFlamesFan]

Maybe it's just me but I find people are using a fine tooth and comb to find anything wrong with the show. It's not going to he Game of Thrones, it's based on one book and won't ever live up to expectations that Thrones had since we never had anything like it before. I think if I get to the point where I'm not happy with a show because a pregnant woman runs too fast I'll stop watching TV. It's almost like people are trying to find reasons not to like things before the story has really begun.

[Inglewood Jack]

Originally Posted by PegCityFlamesFan

Maybe it's just me but I find people are using a fine tooth and comb to find anything wrong with the show. It's not going to he Game of Thrones, it's based on one book and won't ever live up to expectations that Thrones had since we never had anything like it before. I think if I get to the point where I'm not happy with a show because a pregnant woman runs too fast I'll stop watching TV. It's almost like people are trying to find reasons not to like things before the story has really begun.

discussing plot, motivations, timeline, in-universe rules, and major character recasting are not fine tooth comb things. who complained about a pregnant woman running, I can't find that?

the only posts I would be annoyed with are those where someone says the show sucks with no analysis and they're gonna quit, but then they keep posting. aside from that this is not a House of Fricken' Dragon!! thread so criticism is totally fine, as is praise. if there's not enough praise for it, the people that are really fine with everything should help out.

[CliffFletcher]

This is a very different story from GoT. It doesn’t have the heroic action of Jon and the Night’s Watch. Or the coming of age stories of Arya and Daenerys. Or the adventures of Jamie and Brienne. And that’s all deliberate. It’s the story of a dynastic struggle that plays out over decades. GRRM has said HotD is a fictional history brought to life. And that aim dictates the choices around casting, pacing, and plot.

That may leave a lot of GoT fans disappointed. But it’s absolutely what the show runners set out to achieve. And I’m enjoying it so far.

As an aside, GRRM had originally intended for the Song of Ice and Fire books to have five-year jumps between them, and the saga to play out over 15-20 years. I wonder if the GoT show would have been as popular if he stuck with that plan.

[Sr. Mints]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

As an aside, GRRM had originally intended for the Song of Ice and Fire books to have five-year jumps between them, and the saga to play out over 15-20 years. I wonder if the GoT show would have been as popular if he stuck with that plan.

Dunno.

But sometimes what works in print doesn't work on screen. LOTR takes place over ~two decades, but the movie trilogy intentionally condensed it.

Heck, the scene where Bilbo leaves the shire on is 111th birthday to the night Gandalf returned to warn frodo felt like the same night in FOTR, but in the book it was something like 15+years. It would have been quite a different movie with drastic makeup changes, time jumps, or even character a recasting to account for age.