TV House of The Dragon

[Kebab004]

To be honest, I thought it would be much worse. But it turned out pretty well.

 

[zetsu banned]

This show had absolutely zero business being as good as it was. I was surprised that I didn't even need to handicap it with the low expectations I had, it was just somehow legit pretty alright.

 

[xi0]

This show had absolutely zero business being as good as it was. I was surprised that I didn't even need to handicap it with the low expectations I had, it was just somehow legit pretty alright.

If you paid attention to production details you could tell that being better than what GoT turned into would be a pretty automatically easy accomplishment. But yeah, thankfully HBO didn't have anyone there to fuck up Condal and GRRM's vision for the series.

There's a few gripes I have with what narrative choices they made in some places but it's not the same as complaining about butchered book canon and/or completely missing the fucking point of the series since the nature of the source material is so open to interpretation.

 

[Tanuki25]

IMO House of Dragon was better then Game of Thrones last season!
Sure there were some scenes where I face palmed, and asked myself "why she didn't kill the queen and her children, when she was there with her DRAGON?"

 

[zetsu banned]

IMO House of Dragon was better then Game of Thrones last season!
Sure there were some scenes where I face palmed, and asked myself "why she didn't kill the queen and her children, when she was there with her DRAGON?"

HotD was better than the whole back half of GoT.

--- Double Post Merged, Oct 4, 2023, Original Post Date: Oct 4, 2023 ---

If you paid attention to production details

xi0 that's certainly a choice to have for an opening reply to me of all people here xD <-- this is a bit

I think the only things that really annoyed me about HotD was narrative contrivance. So much of the central conflict had to rely on the flimsiest of pretenses. But even with that out of the way, I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to more of that show... considering what hot garbage we were left with after GoT.

 

[xi0]

xi0 that's certainly a choice to have for an opening reply to me of all people here xD <-- this is a bit

I think the only things that really annoyed me about HotD was narrative contrivance. So much of the central conflict had to rely on the flimsiest of pretenses. But even with that out of the way, I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to more of that show... considering what hot garbage we were left with after GoT.

lmao... well I realize now it comes off a certain way but I mainly meant that there was no Weiss or Benioff.

The show has an issue with the flow episode to episode. Some of the characters are different each time (Damon stands out the most). Granted there's some time skips involved here or there, but you can really sense how fractured the writing process for this show was due to covid. Also some of the "chosen" plot beats can be somewhat hit or miss, but that's mainly the writers being forced to choose a canon interpretation of the source materiel. There's aspects of Fire & Blood that really show their cracks when you examine them closely, mainly to do with how it was constructed, especially for the chapters pertaining to this time period since there were existing novellas whose details were altered for the sake of the history book. So some changes can be for the good, but also some may not be. I certainly trust Condel more than I ever trusted Dumb&Dumber.

My biggest gripe is probably their interpretation of Criston Cole. He's called the "Kingmaker" yet the reason he's given that moniker is basically taken from him in the show for seemingly no reason. Also the inclusion of the Prophecy as a new wrinkle has some issues IMO, but I digress.

But that being said, everything else about it is so solid that it doesn't hurt it too much.

 

[terdes]

Waiting for 2 season

 

[xi0]

The dueling trailers is just a bit too MCU for me but still looking forward to it. Seeing Harrenhal next to The Isle of Faces was so nice.

 

[M3J]

Overall, I feel House of the Dragon has been better than at least 80% of GoT, but the main reason is because HotD doesn't seem to go for shock the way GoT did.

 

[zetsu banned]

Overall, I feel House of the Dragon has been better than at least 80% of GoT, but the main reason is because HotD doesn't seem to go for shock the way GoT did.

Larys: "Hold my wine, I have royal feet to jerk off to"

 

[M3J]

Larys: "Hold my wine, I have royal feet to jerk off to"

That is such an iconic scene, but that still pales in comparison to most things in GoT. I mean, foot fetish is common, but burning your kid as a sacrifice to become king is on another level

 

[zetsu banned]

That is such an iconic scene, but that still pales in comparison to most things in GoT. I mean, foot fetish is common, but burning your kid as a sacrifice to become king is on another level

To be fair right after that

Spoiler

Larys burns alive his dad, brother, and presumably everyone else in the castle at the time.

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 21, 2024, Original Post Date: Mar 21, 2024 ---

I'm not saying you're wrong, HOTD is nowhere near as edgelordy as GOT. Just poking fun.

 

[terdes]

I am exited of season two after watched trailes

 

[xi0]

Overall, I feel House of the Dragon has been better than at least 80% of GoT, but the main reason is because HotD doesn't seem to go for shock the way GoT did.

80% is too high... if you're a book reader and insistent on being as critical as possible GoT is great to solid through the first 4 seasons. Some decisions made were mistakes IMO but given the showrunners had no interest in adapting much of anything faithfully after the first 3 books in the series (despite some people blaming GRRM for not finishing the series quickly enough) the changes do make more sense.

For HoTD, Condell is clearly a far bigger fan of the source material but he has more narrative freedom to decide the "truth" of major plot-points in the portions of the book pertaining to this time period, simply because the faux history book structure of Fire & Blood has more than one source for these things and they're often at odds with another.

For instance, an argument could be made when reading the source material that Daemon Targaryen is not even remotely close to a "villain" they paint him as and that the major sources were clearly motivated to smear him in their writings. In the show nothing of the sort is suggested - he doesn't defend himself from allegations of his "heir for a day" comment about the death of Viserys' son despite there being no credible witnesses of him doing so, and in the show he very clearly cripples and kills his wife Rhea Royce in order to be free from the marriage and while people cast aspersions about his involvement in her death, he's in the Stepstones at the time she fell from her horse. You could just as easily call it an accident.

But in any case, HoTD is on a very good start. Not the same level as the first season of GoT but still a great time. And I certainly have more faith in the show remaining something of that level than I did in D&D.

 

[Rikudou King]

While I'm team Black like most of the people I know, I believe I'm the only one who knows how things go down and the story ends... So I'm really curious if there will be a shift in sides when Rhaenyra starts making some questionable decisions.

 

[xi0]

While I'm team Black like most of the people I know, I believe I'm the only one who knows how things go down and the story ends... So I'm really curious if there will be a shift in sides when Rhaenyra starts making some questionable decisions.

The source material is very obviously anti-Black faction, so I'm curious how Ryan Condell will adapt that. Giving Alicent the material he already has proves that he has to go out of his way to make them easier to sympathize with, I expect more with Helaena too.

And yeah, I'm curious how they'll handle those decisions and remove ambiguity about them. I'm not team Black or team Green, but it's obvious who was "less wrong" than the other.