House of the Dragon (GoT Prequel)

[bdubbs]

Agreed with both of you above. It's hard to capture the magic of GoT's first half, but I think HoTD did a pretty damned good job.

I certainly don't think I'll enjoy season 2 of Rings of Power nearly as much.

[blankall]

I also think people's perspectives have gotten skewed by that whole Disney era of RT. Good, but not great, content getting 100% RT scores. Basically, grade inflation for media content. 10 years ago, only the absolute masterpieces and the occasional top tier family film flirted with the high 90s. Somehow every Marvel movie was getting those scores, and that expectation became the norm.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Conformity and keeping favor with the studio are probably the culprits.

Critics want to be cool more than honest/critical now, and the few exceptions have leaned into the contrarian side. There's much less of an honest middle ground. With most of the marvel features I think they talk themselves into liking it well enough. Then they get invited to the next fancy Disney pre-screening event as positive reinforcement.

Only a couple of MCU movies since endgame should've eclipsed 70%

(anyways that conversation has nothing to do with HOTD - great show!)

[Erick Estrada]

The dragons steal every scene they are in as the CGI is top notch. This is the one area where this show has totally eclipsed GoT.

[Coys1882]

The sounds they make are incredible too - great work all around.

[Inglewood Jack]

They're like giant doggos, all good boys and girls. I care about their welfare more than that of the dummy humans. Sucks that we have to watch them all die gruesomely

[SutterBrother]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Damn Daemon... got politically out maneuvered by a 14 year old. Maybe it is time to give up these crown aspirations.

I do wonder how loyal these bastard dragon riders will be. This is their chance to really stick it to the noble houses that abandoned them.

While I get Jacerys' point that the bastard dragon riders will weaken his strongest claim to be Raenyra's heir, it doesn't matter if she doesn't win the war.

This right here.

We know the dragons and Targareyans all go extinct. Thats the point of this story. Dont matter who “wins”.

Its the tale of how all of this power is utterly wiped out by the idiot decisions of these inbred morons.

You could make an argument the its the evil white males doing all the damage, and that if it had hust been left to the girls everything would have been ok… but nah… they’re iditots too based on their “romantic” selections.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by SutterBrother

This right here.

We know the dragons and Targareyans all go extinct. Thats the point of this story. Dont matter who “wins”.

Its the tale of how all of this power is utterly wiped out by the idiot decisions of these inbred morons.

You could make an argument the its the evil white males doing all the damage, and that if it had hust been left to the girls everything would have been ok… but nah… they’re iditots too based on their “romantic” selections.

Maybe I missed something but when did the dragons go extinct?

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Maybe I missed something but when did the dragons go extinct?

Sometime between HotD and GoT. By the time Dany’s eggs hatched some people thought they were a myth.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Very slow season with lots of setup but man was it ever good. I cannot wait to see S3. Too bad it’ll probably be another 2 years. I absolutely love all the maneuvering, small councils and moving of the chess pieces. A few stumbles here and there but otherwise I thought it was as good if not better than the 1st season.

The dbag dragon rider bastard is gonna be trouble for Rhaenyra. Seeing Tyland get beat up was fun. I don’t know how Alicent is bargaining because how is she gonna get Aemond in line? I don’t see how she’s gonna make that work with Aegon leaving with Larys. Who kidnapped Otto? Daeron on Aemond’s orders maybe?

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

The dbag dragon rider bastard is gonna be trouble for Rhaenyra. Seeing Tyland get beat up was fun. I don’t know how Alicent is bargaining because how is she gonna get Aemond in line? I don’t see how she’s gonna make that work with Aegon leaving with Larys. Who kidnapped Otto? Daeron on Aemond’s orders maybe?

Didn't Aemond order Larys to recall Otto, so that he could be Hand again? My guess on Otto's captors are the Greyjoys. They are the last major house of Westeros not to be shown in HoD besides the Martels but IIRC Dorne is still independent at this time.

The whole part of Alicent's plan is that Rhaenyra takes King's Landing while Aemond and Cole siege Harrenhal. Of course he won't accept his mother's treachery, but he is still 1 dragon rider and even he know he cannot handle all of Rhaenyra's dragon riders on his own. He will either flee, or meet his death. But of course with Aegon fled, Rhaenyra will suspect Alicent is going back on her word and trying not pay the price she agreed to.

[Sr. Mints]

There are so many cliffhangers!! Left frustrated last night that so many chess moves happened with so little payoff this season.

As Cecil said, it'll probably be two years til season three, and having to wait so long likely compounds my frustration.

I really enjoyed this season! Maybe as much as early Game of Thrones.

[calumniate]

Girlfriend and I didn't even realize this was the season finale until today. Lol. House of the snoozefest

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Sr. Mints

There are so many cliffhangers!! Left frustrated last night that so many chess moves happened with so little payoff this season.

As Cecil said, it'll probably be two years til season three, and having to wait so long likely compounds my frustration.

I really enjoyed this season! Maybe as much as early Game of Thrones.

It was supposed to be 10 episodes and the executives at HBO made them cut it to eight because of money. It is a little frustrating that instead of condensing the season it appears that they just lopped off the last two episodes and pushed them to season three.

[blankall]

The meme circulating right now is:

"Did I just watch a 70 minute trailer for Season 3"

So true. Great episode, but they really just set up a bunch of big battles. Normally things end on a big battle.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Good, very good. But a bit of a blue balling from HBO.

Didn't think the conflict at Rook's Rest would be our only dragon battle action.

[bdubbs]

Good episode to lead into Season 3. Reddit hates the episode but I guess I'm too easily pleased.

Loved how Sheepstealer looked. Had to rewind to look at his awesome wings again.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Maybe I missed something but when did the dragons go extinct?

In the GoT series they talk about how they had to pen the dragons up post-Dance of the Dragons, as people were fed up with their destruction. They eventually got so sickly and small that they didn't grow beyond the size of sheep and then died out.

I'm presuming most of the big existing ones get wiped out during the dance of the dragons (I have no book knowledge).

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Sr. Mints

There are so many cliffhangers!! Left frustrated last night that so many chess moves happened with so little payoff this season.

As Cecil said, it'll probably be two years til season three, and having to wait so long likely compounds my frustration.

I really enjoyed this season! Maybe as much as early Game of Thrones.

Yeah the problem with the big delay is that there is so much going on and by the time the next season comes around I have to re-learn all the character names and storylines.

[blankall]

So we're getting the new GoT show before this one concludes. 6 episodes of "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" in late 2025.

Seems a bit odd, as this series takes place in between House of the Dragon and GoT, so it might give away the ending of the House of Dragon. I guess we kind of know that anyways, everyone and their dragons die. The new series takes place 90 years before GoT, so I'm assuming that's 1-2 monarchs before the Mad King and Robert's Rebellion.