House of the Dragon

[Hammock Parties]

OH YEAH!

All the dragons roar as one.
The #HOTD trailer has arrived. pic.twitter.com/ug7ESvpg8U

— House of the Dragon (@HouseofDragon) July 20, 2022

[Dunerdr]

That would be a great episode 8 out of a 10 episode season. **** them for that. It feels like when Yellow stone only dropped a half season. Pretty pissed with it really. Hard to trust them to deliver again after this turd and the end of GOT. Usually season 1 is a build up laying the foundation. They did that. Kind of sucked because we finally got some action and it was over. Season 2 you get a dragon battle in what episode 5? Then just kind of a dick tease 3 episdode season 3 trailer.

[staylor26]

There was supposed to be a battle at the end of this season that was left out because they want to extend this to 4 seasons. George was the one pushing for 4, so I guess I don't really have a problem with it

I guess it's easier not to be annoyed with the prick teasing when you know what's coming eventually.

[Dunerdr]

Originally Posted by staylor26

There was supposed to be a battle at the end of this season that was left out because they want to extend this to 4 seasons. George was the one pushing for 4, so I guess I don't really have a problem with it

I guess it's easier not to be annoyed with the prick teasing when you know what's coming eventually.

Listen man, Im mad when my wife has a headache. I'm mad when GRRM has one too. I NEED this action until football season starts.

[duncan_idaho]

I signed in expecting to talk about the amazing acting being dropped left and right in last night's episode. Just masterful performance after masterful performance...

This... was not what I expected, to say the least.

I'll say this before getting into spoiler-y stuff:

We can't, on one hand, universally revile and complain about the lack of characterization and "showing" in the latter seasons of Game of Thrones that led to people literally being shocked that Daenerys went bad (because the setup was light and only slightly hinted at) - not to mention all the people that foolishly gave their kids that Tragedeigh of a name only to discover she was a baddie - and then complain when that mistake is corrected in House of the Dragon. And now into spoiler-y stuff.

Spoiler!

- Daemon. All that slow-paced build up we saw this season was designed to (1) get him to be able to see wisdom of someone other than himself - preparing him to go along with Oskar Tully when the little lord dropped a masterclass in leadership and politics; (2) trust Alys Rivers when she took him to the godswood tree in this episode; (3) make the "character turn" - from selfish, greedy, narcissist to a selfish dude who sees his duty and fulfills it.

- Rhaenyra. The reticence she shows about the war, trying to find ways to end it that don't involve carpet-burning entire towns and keeps, really shows the character of a woman it is easy to make a villain of. Emma D'Arcy is killing it in this role, and I love them for it.

- Ser Criston Cole. I don't like the character - he's a hot-blooded romantic who literally helped **** up EVERYTHING - but his scene in 2.8 with Ser Gawain Hightower was epic. Just masterfully delivered.

- Ser Gawain Hightower. He's a small character but some of my favorite moments have come from him this season. I particularly loved his scene with Alicent, when he talked about his nephew Daeron (who I remarked last time is everything you'd hope a philosopher king to be, apparently, and probably stands in stark contrast to spoiled-brat-wasteling Aegon and just-brimming-under-the surface pscyopath Aemond), and he was excellent in this scene with Cole as well.

- The little revelations that are filling in the story are fun for this book nerd. Seeing more of Larys Strong (who again, is just manipulating Aegon but it's presented masterfully). Seeing poor Queen Halaena (and also getting further insights into her foresight ability, which speaks to the magical nature of the Targaryens).

- Ulf and Hugh and Addam. Boy, those Dragonseeds are something, and it does look like the spare twin Targaryen girl is going to end up filling the Nettles role (shoot, watch her start going by that and it's even more perfect).

- Jace and Baela are fun. Lot of teen angst and conflict playing out there, and we see a match that really would work if given the chance to rule.

- The Triarchy stuff was lighter filler, and I see that as intentional - trying to bring down some of the heaviness of everything else.

- The ****ING WINTER WOLVES make an appearance, and I am so, so here for that.

Come at me if you want. I know I come at watching shows and movies with a writer's heart and mindset and sensibilities, so I'm more forgiving of time on exposition and storytelling than a lot of folks.

For me, at least, that was a home-run ending to this season, because the next two are gonna be just nuts... almost to the point of rushing with the amount of major events occurring, but they've all been set up and put in place by this one...

[ToxSocks]

Probably one of the most uneventful season endings in the GOT universe ever, but that's ok. Still a high quality show.

It was like, "Hey, you know that war we were building up to at the start of the season? Well, we're going to leave you on a cliffhanger that's STILL building up to that war".

Lol...ok, thanks guys....


Anyway...the Daemon character turn was nice. I did enjoy that.

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by ToxSocks

Probably one of the most uneventful season endings in the GOT universe ever, but that's ok. Still a high quality show.

It was like, "Hey, you know that war we were building up to at the start of the season? Well, we're going to leave you on a cliffhanger that's STILL building up to that war".

Lol...ok, thanks guys....


Anyway...the Daemon character turn was nice. I did enjoy that.

For all the complaining about Daemon's storyline, his character had a full arc this season and he's probably the only one. I guess Alicent kind of did as well though.

[dlphg9]

Originally Posted by ToxSocks

Probably one of the most uneventful season endings in the GOT universe ever, but that's ok. Still a high quality show.

It was like, "Hey, you know that war we were building up to at the start of the season? Well, we're going to leave you on a cliffhanger that's STILL building up to that war".

Lol...ok, thanks guys....


Anyway...the Daemon character turn was nice. I did enjoy that.

Yeah I did like what they did with Daemon.

[dlphg9]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

I signed in expecting to talk about the amazing acting being dropped left and right in last night's episode. Just masterful performance after masterful performance...

This... was not what I expected, to say the least.

I'll say this before getting into spoiler-y stuff:

We can't, on one hand, universally revile and complain about the lack of characterization and "showing" in the latter seasons of Game of Thrones that led to people literally being shocked that Daenerys went bad (because the setup was light and only slightly hinted at) - not to mention all the people that foolishly gave their kids that Tragedeigh of a name only to discover she was a baddie - and then complain when that mistake is corrected in House of the Dragon. And now into spoiler-y stuff.

Spoiler!

- Daemon. All that slow-paced build up we saw this season was designed to (1) get him to be able to see wisdom of someone other than himself - preparing him to go along with Oskar Tully when the little lord dropped a masterclass in leadership and politics; (2) trust Alys Rivers when she took him to the godswood tree in this episode; (3) make the "character turn" - from selfish, greedy, narcissist to a selfish dude who sees his duty and fulfills it.

- Rhaenyra. The reticence she shows about the war, trying to find ways to end it that don't involve carpet-burning entire towns and keeps, really shows the character of a woman it is easy to make a villain of. Emma D'Arcy is killing it in this role, and I love them for it.

- Ser Criston Cole. I don't like the character - he's a hot-blooded romantic who literally helped **** up EVERYTHING - but his scene in 2.8 with Ser Gawain Hightower was epic. Just masterfully delivered.

- Ser Gawain Hightower. He's a small character but some of my favorite moments have come from him this season. I particularly loved his scene with Alicent, when he talked about his nephew Daeron (who I remarked last time is everything you'd hope a philosopher king to be, apparently, and probably stands in stark contrast to spoiled-brat-wasteling Aegon and just-brimming-under-the surface pscyopath Aemond), and he was excellent in this scene with Cole as well.

- The little revelations that are filling in the story are fun for this book nerd. Seeing more of Larys Strong (who again, is just manipulating Aegon but it's presented masterfully). Seeing poor Queen Halaena (and also getting further insights into her foresight ability, which speaks to the magical nature of the Targaryens).

- Ulf and Hugh and Addam. Boy, those Dragonseeds are something, and it does look like the spare twin Targaryen girl is going to end up filling the Nettles role (shoot, watch her start going by that and it's even more perfect).

- Jace and Baela are fun. Lot of teen angst and conflict playing out there, and we see a match that really would work if given the chance to rule.

- The Triarchy stuff was lighter filler, and I see that as intentional - trying to bring down some of the heaviness of everything else.

- The ****ING WINTER WOLVES make an appearance, and I am so, so here for that.

Come at me if you want. I know I come at watching shows and movies with a writer's heart and mindset and sensibilities, so I'm more forgiving of time on exposition and storytelling than a lot of folks.

For me, at least, that was a home-run ending to this season, because the next two are gonna be just nuts... almost to the point of rushing with the amount of major events occurring, but they've all been set up and put in place by this one...

You can't do all of this build up all season for absolutely no payoff. There were some good parts, but God damn the Lannister scenes were completely ****ing stupid. The Alicent coming to talk to Rhaenyra stuff was ****ing stupid. Those 2 things took up way too much time and were just stupid.

Is Halaena hanging out with the 3 eyed Raven? She can see all this shit just like Bran was able to, but didn't decide to save her kid?

[ThaVirus]

Count me in the minority that didn’t mind. It certainly wasn’t as exciting as a typical season finale but I think the boring character development episodes of GoT are better than most others.

And it was finally a good come-about for Daemon. A couple episodes ago he would have jizzed himself hearing that guy say the other lords would declare for him. Of course, a couple episodes ago it would have actually mattered. He didn’t know it but his dream of being king died the moment Adam pulled up with Sea Smoke..

Even still, I think it was a cool turn of events that none of that mattered to him anyway. He saw what he needed to see to stop being such a selfish, sniveling little **** and I loved the line of his role just being a “part in the story”. The dude’s had a major case of Main Character Syndrome since S1E1.

[arrowheadnation]

Also…Alicent Hightower-Targaryen for mother of the year: she schemed to get her son on the throne, then when times got tough, she agreed to sacrifice him and his brother so she could run away and live a normal life with her dingbat daughter with whom she has very little in common. She gets extra credit for keeping a secret side piece and another kid in Old Town that she hasn’t seen in years and only exists out of plot convenience. Did I miss anything?

[Bowser]

Speaking of Alicent......WTF is happening with Otto? Last we heard, IIRC, was that he was headed to Oldtown after Aegon went full reerun and made Cole the Hand, correct? Now he's in a cage? Who has him?