House of the Dragon (GoT Prequel)

reviews are OUT! warm but not glowing. 68 on Metacritic. most seem to think it's technically gorgeous but people are more split on how engrossing the story is. everyone cites Matt Smith as a total scene-stealer, naturellement

I really hope the humour of early GoT isn't entirely absent. part of the reason it was so great was that it had a lot of levity. Dragon looks so dark.
 
As a Lord of the Rings fan* who thought Game Of Thrones an absolute borefest, I'm kinda baffled why I'm REALLY looking forward to starting this on Monday but currently couldn't give a shit about the Amazon LOTR series.

I imagine there'll be room for both to be a success (especially if subsequent seasons don't end up airing at the same time) but I'm interested to see which will end up the bigger hit. I guess this has an upper hand by going first.


*Films, not books. I'm not a NERD
 
Jark said:
reviews are OUT! warm but not glowing. 68 on Metacritic. most seem to think it's technically gorgeous but people are more split on how engrossing the story is. everyone cites Matt Smith as a total scene-stealer, naturellement

I really hope the humour of early GoT isn't entirely absent. part of the reason it was so great was that it had a lot of levity. Dragon looks so dark.
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I said exactly the same in a few posts earlier. They’re going for style over substance whereas GoT had both
 
I like the premier, I need to watch again but it was engaging enough for a start. I want the opening theme and more original music.
 
I enjoyed it as well. More of the Queen who never was please, I liked Rhaenyra too. THOSE scenes really were grim though:(

Also loved the updated music over the closing credits.

Oh and hello lowborn Ser Criston Cole.
 
I thought it was a fantastic premiere. the emotional stakes are there, the story seems well considered, the actor playing Rhaenyra is fantastic... some of the characters will need more depth or charm, but considering I never gave much of a fuck about Daenerys or the Targaryens, I declare it a HIT
 
Paddy Considine looks like someone doing a GoT parody

He just has a TOO MODERN FACE!
 
I watched this out of curiosity and found it… ok. The daughter is definitely a standout along with Matt Smith. I just don’t really care about this world though, so I doubt I’ll be STICKING AROUND
 
I couldn't get into Game of Thrones, but I will NOT let the cultural conversation pass me by. NOT THIS TIME. Not when I can use it to drop useless bits of historical trivia into conversation.

The first episode seemed quite good. Poor MUM. I liked the daughter a lot. I found the wigs a bit distracting. I look forward to tuning out every time the male characters are on screen alone.
 
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dUb said:
I watched this out of curiosity and found it… ok. The daughter is definitely a standout along with Matt Smith. I just don’t really care about this world though, so I doubt I’ll be STICKING AROUND
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Ok so I watched and sorry to be boring but what’s the point of this series? It gave us nothing new, everything was extremely predictable and my first impression of all the actors is mostly negative. Daenerys wasn’t a good actress but she had charm and charisma. This new one seems unlikable.

I did get goosebumps when the familiar music started over the closing credits and I will of course be watching, but so far it’s a meh.
 
RaspberrySwirl said:
Ok so I watched and sorry to be boring but what’s the point of this series? It gave us nothing new, everything was extremely predictable and my first impression of all the actors is mostly negative. Daenerys wasn’t a good actress but she had charm and charisma. This new one seems unlikable.

I did get goosebumps when the familiar music started over the closing credits and I will of course be watching, but so far it’s a meh.
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I mean do you want me to tell what the story is?
 
I thought it was rather good and like GoT I love the bickering council scenes
 
I’ve seen half of it. It looks gorgeous, it’s well written, the cast are all great, there’s lots of tonal continuity from GoT. But I can’t see the audience size sustaining without the relatability and humour of the original series. They’ll absolutely retain all the core fans and HBO fans and TV fans but to retain the vast audience it has it needs to keep the mainstream audience and I don’t think they’ll have the patience for it.

But it might open out. The first few episodes of GoT were fairly slow.
 
I liked the second episode a lot more, it felt more like GoT with the deliberate pace and I’m excited to see the story slowly taking shape.

Disappointed that we didn’t get a new theme.

Also the biggest misstep so far is Mysaria’s accent which was giving me

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Also I got the shivers when the king was walking with little Leana who’s a child dressed like an adult.

I’m loving Corlys Velaryon.
 
I'm enjoying this so far. I especially like that Paddy Considine's King is physically rotting, and although I've been able to see the main plot developments coming so far it's not made me enjoy them any less.

I absolutely can't remember any of their names yet, apart from Daemon (and I'm still calling him MATT SMITH anyway). Him and Eve Best are my faves at this point.

It does feels like an odd choice to give this the same theme as Thrones? Like, fair doos it's a banger, but it just feels a bit cheap / creatively unambitious.
 
Yes I did expect something more of a twist on the theme music and titles.

I enjoyed it again and it did feel like an early GoT mid-season episode. Whenever Daemon is on screen it does feel that the stakes rise just a bit. The bridge scene was marvellous.
 
it was a decent second episode. I don't mind how talky it is at all and the bridge scene was indeed great. for me the show is all about Rhaenerys so far.

I don't think it has enough characters or subplots though. almost every scene features Rhaenerys or Viserys. in one scene they're in Dragonstone, the next back in King's Landing. they need to show a bit of life outside the Red Keep, add a bit of levity and variety.
 
Ok so this is actually really bloody good. In fact I’m surprised by how good it is.

I always expected they would make it look fucking beautiful, and they have, but the dialogue is stunning - I’m not sure how much source material they have to go off but I’m assuming nowhere near as much as GoT had, which is might impressive.

I am probably missing a few Easter eggs (YouTube needed to remind me about the dagger) but I’ve enjoyed the few I’ve caught - the line about “having a sharp tongue doesn’t make you a king” while referring to the ancestor of Robert Baratheon was a nice touch.

The girl playing the Princess is just spectacular. She eats up every scene. So does Matt Smith but you kinda expect that, especially with the role he’s been given. Loving all the politics already and getting to know houses and histories largely washed over in GoT

They really do need to find its sense of humour though in order to keep its vast following. At this quality it will definitely maintain a large cult audience but the mainstream will need more than cinematography and scene chewing dialogue.
 
Not having new theme music though - what an error. It’s like they’re saying this is season 9. Really shocked they did that tbh. So is every spin off going to have the music?
 
funky said:
but the dialogue is stunning
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I'm not sure I'd go that far. it's good but I don't think it matches the wit or intelligence of much of GoT, yet. it's just solid.

agreed about Milly Alcock as Rhaenerys though. she's sensational.
 
funky said:
Not having new theme music though - what an error. It’s like they’re saying this is season 9. Really shocked they did that tbh. So is every spin off going to have the music?
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I think they've been pretty explicitly clear about this being the continuity prequel. GoT but more Targaryens is the pitch. I'm fine with the music even if a new theme could have been cool
 
There’s been some wonderfully written scenes. The Rhaenerys and Rhaenys was a standout - two QoLs just jousting passive aggressive statements to each other, it was pure beauty.
 
They don’t have much dialogue to adapt, Fire & Blood the book is more of a very long Wikipedia entry (a famous line here and there but no dialogue).
 
Fuck me I’ve only just discovered that
season 1 has a major time jump and the actress playing Rhaenerya is soon to be played by someone else! What a LOSS that will be (although the other actress does look kick ass)
 
I do think it’s rude how everyone goes up to Rhaenys and goes “oooh the queen that never was”. Let the poor thing live.
 
funky said:
Fuck me I’ve only just discovered that
season 1 has a major time jump and the actress playing Rhaenerya is soon to be played by someone else! What a LOSS that will be (atboogh the other actress does look kick ass
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yeah there will be a few time jumps, but the only major actors changing are Rhaenyra and Alicent. The Velaryon kids as well but they’re not major characters yet.
 
I’m actually quite sad about that. The others I can live with.
 
me too. I'm worried it will be difficult to adjust to. it takes a whole season on The Crown to stop being mad!
 
funky said:
I’m actually quite sad about that. The others I can live with.
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I think the two actors cast are both wonderful but they did luck out with young Rhaenyra. The meat of the story though is about the older characters.
 
I have some questions for this familiar with the wider lore

I didn’t actually know that Valyrian was a powerful house in recent times - I thought it was an ancient race/language. Maybe I did know and forgot. Anyway, am I right in thinking that no Valyrians of note were left standing by the birth of Danaerys or have I forgotten about a connection made in the original series?

More importantly is the fate of the house in HotD covered by Martin’s lore and are we to assume that fate will be covered in this series?
 
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