[TV] House of the Dragon

[Malaphax]

Quote

The story of the House Targaryen set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones (2011).

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11198330/

First episode seemed alright.  I'm still very skeptical because even though the book this series is based on is finished (fuck off George, go write some more books), they might make the mistake of dragging this one for more seasons than they should.  Especially considering early numbers show this is doing very well for HBO and they need big releases to keep subscribers.  The parts I have some concerns over is that they're doing timeskips and recasting some of the main actors (but only the "young" actors) which I understand from a technical standpoint but might lead to some weirdness - the crown does this but only in-between seasons. 

Also, I have to point out that they added some absolutely eye-rollingly bad dialogue/references in the first episode that unfortunately did nothing but piss me off and remind me of the shitshow that seasons 6-8 of game of thrones was.

Glad to see Alt-Shift X is back - here's a good video with some spoiler free information about the various people and families central to this story. 

[kuhla]

No spoilers but episode #4 (from last night) felt like a real step up in quality after I found the previous 2 episodes to be kind of average.

Still has a lot of skepticism to overcome but now I'm actually a little more interested in where the show is going.

 

EDIT: I meant #4 not #3.

[kuhla]

Feels like it had a bit of a rough start but is starting to get into its rhythm now.

I know this may sound strange but I feel like this show is not just the exact same game of thrones formula again. There is fewer storylines and they are much closer to each other. Remember in GoT there was sometimes multiple very disconnected storylines that were on an intercept course with each other? None of that so far in this.

[Jedi2155]

Definitely agree that this story so far feels very linear and not as grand as GoT. I feel like this story is much more political with fewer twists and turns. One thing I did enjoy is the much more nuanced realistic feeling of the decision making within the show. None of the "twists" felt like they came out of nowhere and had a lot of logic and backstory to each of them. No single decision was truly black and white evil but huge shades of gray.

[Malaphax]

I appreciate that they're willing to spend a large portion of this season as a lead up to the war of succession / civil war.  This helps cut down the number of competing factions to basically 2 with some minor outliers.  I've also really enjoyed the acting, both the young and older versions of characters have done a good job of keeping the character similar while also showing some growth.  I'm glad to see they've backed way off the various references to the overall world of game of thrones in favor of pushing the core narrative.  I'm still hoping the showrunners keep the storylines moving and don't try to drag this out past ~4 seasons. 
The other concern is that since this show seems to be doing well HBO is almost certain to try and create some other spin offs, probably the Blackfyre rebellions and potentially weaving in the Dunk and Egg novels. 

Spoiler

I've read a few theories about Larys' ability to spy being related to his ability to warg into animals, they've shown too many shots in the castle of rats for this to be completely random.  I'd be excited to see them bring back some magic (other than the dragons) that existed in this universe. 

 

[Jedi2155]

Since I do not read books and had no backstory on the direction the show was heading, I felt a little bored (not too much) and wasn't sure what the point of the show was. I spent some time this past week to realize that was an impending civil war and now it makes more sense.