I didn't like the casting of Matt Smith as Daemon (especially when the trailers aired). He knocked this first episode out of the park, even if I think a roided up Hiddleston would have been the best option.

Also,

Says the guy that defended Will Smith of all people! LMAO

But seriously, I'm pretty sure GRRM said Daemon is his favorite character in the entire GOT universe.

He seems like the epitome of "gray" characters that he loves. I know he was portrayed as a bit of an antagonist, but there's more to his character.

The armor/costumes are way more in line with the books/reality than anything we saw after season 2, so that's a plus.

[QUOTE=staylor26;16422625]Says the guy that defended Will Smith of all people! LMAO

Yup.

That's why his stuff is so fun to read, IMO.

Really enjoyed the first episode. Super excited for this series.

I’m here for it. It’s a step below the prime GOT. Either they didn’t get the money GOT got or they didn’t utilize it as effectively. The dragons didn’t look as good, the dragon fire was laughably bad, and the sets don’t look nearly as good as they did in the first series.

The acting also isn’t as strong. I think there was a real magnetism with the writing and performances of the first few seasons. But In this one yo didn’t “feel” much.

But I did enjoy it. It’s going to get a fair bit of rope to hang itself.

Hilariously my buddy said he read an article that said the show wasn’t going to have as much violence or sex. They lied. :D

Meh. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive. I thought it was a decent little plug.



Yeah the crew comments afterword pointed out that

Not a bad first episode. The acting in the GoT series was far superior and it had far more characters with their own storylines. This doesn’t have the pull GoT had, especially since it focuses on just one house.

I’ll give it a couple more episodes for things to flesh out but hard for me to be as invested in the house of dragon series with the way the GoT series ended.

A good start which introduced many potentially interesting characters. It's also unfair to compare this to peak Thrones right now which took many episodes and many years to get reach the level of complexity and character development it did (S1 of that also didn't even really start rolling until mid-season).

I'm pretty sure I read there's been more spent per episode on this show than GoT. Certainly there would have to be more money in it than the early seasons of that.

I anticipate he's right in his assessment about Hightower and his brother needing to be protected from those around him.

I only realized two days ago that this wasn't the same series as that woke Hobbit trash Amazon is about to release... I have deliberately avoided any information on that.

I knew nothing about it...thought it was a good start...then again I wasn't comparing it to GOT and had low expectations.

It'll be interesting where is goes...GOT had a million sub plots, wars, and the threat of White Walkers always looming. It jumped around every week which helped keep the pace engaging. This is focused on one family, no war and no White Walkers....seems more like Succession in a fantasy setting.

Hopefully it takes on a life of it's own....like Better Call Saul did.

Less than three minutes into the very first episode and they've managed to piss me off. I hate exposition. It's lazy storytelling. The worst kind is narration. The second worst kind is text thrown up on the screen. The shittiest way to do words on a screen is to play with the text to make sure your dumb-as-**** audience gets it.

Lol what a silly thing to get worked up about.

Lol.

Yeah he was my favorite as well. The episode didn't disappoint me. Felt like i was watching Game of Thrones and Daemon stole the show. Both as an actor and a character.

Agreed. My recollection of season 1 was that it was a fight to get through the first several episodes and i really didn't get satisfaction till the end of the season.

This episode of House of the Dragon felt like GOT several seasons in already in terms of production value.

I had the exact same reaction. But the show, for a first episode with a lot to set up, was otherwise off to a good start.

Sure. The story is interesting enough and there are certain actors/characters who are compelling. I will give it a shot.

Huh. Didn’t look like it. At least in sets.I know the dragons cost big money. And I’m sure that little fly through kings landing cost more than I’ll make in a lifetime but hitting the screen there was a lot of stuff that looked cheap. Most of the castle stuff looked like a set rather than a carved stone, some of the armor looked like LARP stuff compared to the original stuff.

And like this carriage. Shit looks like it’s straight off a syfy set.

https://i.imgur.com/GyCcN50.jpg

I read that the glut of marvel/DC/Star Wars/GOT basically everything that’s out now is graphics heavy and graphics houses are feeling the crunch. There has been a lot of talk of Marvel stuff looking bad. Basic Supply/Demand curves could dictate that even substandard work could cost more than 8 years ago.

I’m nowhere near educated enough to speak intelligently on it, but it doesn’t look good in some places. It was bad enough to take me out of it but I’m not mad. Im here for the story and performances. Id have much rather them told a better story than put up the awesome visual of Drogon shaking off the snow (that was awesome, BTW). But it’s there.

Read somewhere it cost 20-30 million an episode for House of Dragon. GoT cost somewhere around 100 million for an entire season.

Holy shit.

[dork]I'd be interested in the inflation numbers in that industry. Typically technology makes any specific scene cheaper, but I'm guessing that's not the case in 2022. I'd pay to see a comprehensive analysis.[/dork]

My opinion. Don't **** up the details that will take me out of it, even if it means pulling back from pitch scenes.

They spent $200 million on this season. Another $100 million to promote the show.

That got me wondering how money is made..

Google says HBO ended 2021 with 48.6 million subscribers. To make math simple, assume they get $10 per subscriber per month. Assume the average subscriber only holds the subscription for 6 months. HBO takes in almost $3 billion.

And that's just American subscribers. Apparently there are over 70 billion global subscribers.

I'm sure they're doling out a ton on original series production, movie/TV show rights, tech guys to keep the app running smoothly, etc. but damn. Seems like they're raking in cash.

I noticed that carriage design too for what it's worth...like a b-movie prop.

7/10 good start, to be fair this is leading up to some major wars too. So I'm interested

HBO said they made $2 Billion in profit off GOT. Probably wrote off another $8 Billion to avoid taxes.

I can't wait for this to really get going.

Yeah they were definitely foreshadowing some future peculiar behavior in EP1.

There is a civil war brewing in the Targaryen family...a civil war involving dragons. It's gonna be pretty awesome I think.

After watching the episode my impression is that it was supposed to begin with that dragon flight over the city. Then a group of dumb ****ers watching it convinced themselves that the show was all about a younger version of Dany so they added the exposition.

Wow. Never seen someone so upset about an exposition. If this show is humming by season 2 episode 4, are you still going to be harboring resentment because of this deep slight in narration?

It's over. Enjoy the show.

That was....not good.

I figured with Sapochnik directing and them really needing to try to win back some capital with the fan base, we'd get something interesting. We did not.

And the guy playing Viserys is just a really bad actor.

Daemon is a freakin' awesome character.

And I just don't think Matt Smith is the right guy to cast for him at all.

Felt like I wanted it to be Transformers but instead I got go bots

viserys is a total pussy

rooting for daemon

the medieval c-section was disturbing, even for GoT

I see this as the standard playing not to lose approach. They threw a bunch of money at shiny shit, tried to make something immersive, missed a few details and got beat. As a Chiefs fan I can see it from a million miles away.

They continued to miss what’s important. There were no Sean Bean killer performances, no magnetic Mark Addy banter, no Dinklage wit.

Daemon was interesting. Aema was compelling. The rest they missed on. I think some of it was trying to be stoic (see Sean Bean), but it wasn’t good.

Thats not to say it is a disaster. The whole birthing bed is our battlefield and the. The intercut birth with savage knight competition was damned good television. And the funeral scene carried weight.

But there is an interesting enough world they have access to and hopefully grab hold of they’ll get some rope.

10M viewers for the first episode. On par with much of the S7 and S8 viewership numbers for GoT pre-pandemic, which is pretty impressive.

It certainly looks like this will be HBO's next powerhouse show.

I've seen exactly one episode. The opening was stupid, and I still watched it through to the end. Meanwhile here you are white knighting a TV show for some reason. Get a grip.

I thought it was pretty good. Started a little "meh" but by the end, I was fully sucked in. Had most of the usual GOT elements. Liked how the music paid homage to the original, especially during the ending credits.

Big GOT fan, never read any of the books. Completely underwhelmed by the first episode.
Dragons/CGI were weak. Acting not very strong and character development was poor.

If you are going to have that c-section scene it would help if there was a little emotional investment in the king and queen.

Who gives a shit about the quality, were there any good memes? S1 of GOT had the peak of GOT memes with Robert Baratheon.

man I would hate to be some of you guys, way too critical about a tv show. Its supposed to be entertaining if you're not entertained don't watch it.

It had as many viewers as the original shows did in their heyday. First show so people were curious. Lets see what the numbers are and how far it drops off.

Some people in this thread overall are way way more negative than I've seen in other places.

The scene with the medieval C-section interspersed with the violence in the tournament will eventually be viewed as a classic moment.

I mean i'm not disagreeing with some of the takes in here just saying is all. I watched game of thrones when it first aired and thought it was awful. I then gave it another shot a couple years later and became hooked.

The problem with the entire idea, at least as a book reader nerd, is that the Targaryens just aren't terribly interesting characters. I've mentioned it before in some other GoT thread, but they were just mediocre Valyrians who happened to not be in town when the city went 'splodey. They were rulers by happenstance and not terribly good at it.

Look at the characters in GoT. Obviously Tyrion carried a lot of the weight, but Varys, Bronn, Sam, Davos, Littlefinger, The Hound, Robert - these are all characters that bring a different feel to the show.

This looks like you're gonna have a bunch of stoic and entitled Targaryen's with a dash of Ned nobility and Stannis obstinance sprinkled in. Plus a mis-cast Daemon.

The Targaryen's just aren't as interesting as the dueling families with their histories and their different personalities shaped by time/geography, etc...

It just doesn't have the depth of characters to keep things interesting. It'll have an Arya and Sansa and Robb and probably even a Jon sort of character. But those guys, while they often drove the story, didn't make the story entertaining.

It was the ancillary characters and their personalities/actions that made GoT interesting.

And Ros. Man oh man did Esme Bianco keep my attention...

Sheeesh guys it's been 1 episode and ya'll talking about lack of character development already?

I mean damn, give the series some time to breath first.

I'm saying they are honing in on a family that just isn't that interesting to begin with.

'Fire and Blood' is just a fairly run of the mill fantasy book - nothing much of note in there. Oh sure, there's a story arc and a climax, etc.... but it doesn't paint with the broad strokes that the ASOIF series did.

It's...fine. I don't see it as viable source material for some massive TV undertaking. That's why I have more hope for the Lord of the Rings prequel; the material to mine is just better.

But again - should they find a way to get Esme Bianco back in the show and keep her in various states of undress, it will cover for many sins.

Joffrey's greatest crime

House of the Dragon
 

I thought it was awesome and was hoping it wouldn't end.

I'm easy to please but the CGI, sets, costume design, and acting all seemed good enough for me to stay immersed.

I think not having read Fire & Blood is actually helping. I have no ****ing clue what's going to happen, just that it'll be bloody.

That guy got his dick and balls cut iff

I thought the first episode was pretty good. I never finished the books but I did love the show until d&d had to figure out how to end it and completely ate shit and made everyone reeruned. D&d having nothing to do with the new show is reassuring. I'm cautiously optimistic but I did lol at viserys telling rhaenyra about the white walkers and the long winter and how got handled that

How so? It's not like you get some overwhelmingly obvious description as to his looks/physique, etc.

Don’t overthink it gents, we got brutality, tits, and dragons in E1.

Pretty much all I ever asked for in a GOT episode.

Someone I can buy as an athlete and who comes across as suave/charming more than conniving and underhanded. Matt Smith could play Baelish just fine but I’m just not buying him as Daemon.

I think you’re right - you can’t have someone massive here. Jai Courtney has probably bulked himself out of it, for instance (but at one point would’ve been a good choice).

Maybe Garrett Hedlund? Jensen Ackles? Alexander Ludwig? I dunno - not a casting director. But man, I’d have come up with literally a hundred names before I got to Matt Smith.

Or here’s a thought - and hear me out on this one - Esme Bianco. Just throwing it out there.

ROFL

I think I might have actually shed a hear when she died.

Esme Bianco. Welp, never fight with the urge for an unexpected fap in the morning.

I have not read Fire and Blood but, even at that I can easily see what you are saying. They went to Westeros with dragons, conquered it with dragons, lost it due to no more dragons and because cray cray, and then nearly won it back because dragons once again but, it slipped through their fingers because cray cray. (Sorry for the run on sentence)

Frankly, the most interesting Targaryen centric story I can think of would be coming to Westeros and conquering it. And even that story I feel like would have a fairly low ceiling for amount of creative story telling.

I’m still giving it a chance though, even after I determined I wasn’t going to because **** anything GRRM until he finishes ASOIAF. I’m weak, whatever.

People still think he’s going to finish the books?

Ludwig would have been interesting. Whether or not he'd want to after Vikings is a thing where maybe he didnt' want a character like this. Can't say for sure.

Esme Bianco in anything, with no clothing of course, is worthwhile TV.

No.

It's like Tom Servo once said, "keep in mind it's just a show, I really should just relax"

I'll watch it but yeah, not going to overthink it or worry about it too much. Like I'm on the only person on the internet that enjoys both the Star Wars prequels and the sequels. they're big dumb movies that are entertaining for a couple of hours and who cares it's just a movie.

I don't even think the mother****er plans on finishing them. It wouldn't surprise me to hear that he stopped writing the book several years ago.

After he saw the reception to the end of GOT and how that ruined the entire show for a ton of people, I could see him being scared that people will hate it and tarnish the reputation of the series. I also think he just has too much going on.

Pretty sure he's busy helping Valve get Half Life 3 JUST RIGHT, but he should be back on ASOIAF any day now.

https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.83a26b00...pid=ImgRaw&r=0

Still funny.

https://youtu.be/lle4t4o8EDk

He would be a fool to finish the books at this point. He should focus on developing some prequel and spin-off TV shows while laughing all the way to the bank.

Yup.

Absolutely nothing to gain by finishing them and ultimately he knows this.

Since this show takes place a couple centuries before Game of Thrones the only character who could even possibly cross over is Melisandre. Her past is mysterious. We know she was in Asshai at one point before the War of the Five Kings.

I looked at the Targaryen family line several years ago during GoT. Kind of wish I hadn’t looked at it again last night lol

It’s officially renewed for a second season. That means HBO got enough new subscribers after the first week to bet another $100-$150 million on another season.

Episode 2 was good. Looking at the coming attraction, I’m not sure I like the quick fast forward.

Thoroughly enjoyed. More more more.

Staylor, your boy was a little bitch when confronted with a powerful blonde girl. Weak.

I loved hearing the GoT theme song this time around. I don’t believe if was in the first episode. It was a little different with it not showing a map, but I suppose the show hasn’t ventured to many city’s or showing multiple storylines like GoT.

Agreed! Really enjoy it so far. But based on the trailer for next week:

I took it as just a preview of the series not the next episode. Mostly because the preview showed the crab situation getting action so unless they literally want us to think that gets dealt with years from now it would seem at least next weeks episode isn’t a big jump, unless they did it mid episode.

I liked the second episode more than the first. Nice to see the credit sequence, it was visually satisfying. The opening scene was compelling. There was a nice dramatic peak to the main conflict and it was resolved well. The story moved along and made me interested in what happens next. Best of all no scenes of Doctor Who ****ing a whore doggy style and grunting in dissatisfaction when he failed to ejaculate, I can live without those.

yeah I'm still cautiously optimistic for this show.

I'd rate it a solid B so far which isn't bad, an A+ episode would be like the Red Wedding episode. I guess it's still possible for it to fall apart but they have source material and everyone involved seems competent.

Looking forward to a fight between 2 dragon riders which I assume will happen at some point (I haven't read the books this is based on but I mean it seems like something that will happen)

I haven't read this book but if it ends the same with the girl going full tyrant and killing innocent people I'll be pissed

They have to jump ahead in time to get close to the Dance of Dragons timeline.

Otherwise it would be like a 15 year build up to it.

I enjoyed it. I don't think they're killing it Better Call Saul style, but I was satisfied by the end of it.

I won't lie, I was creeped out at the prospect of marrying the 12 year old. That was just unpleasant.

I watched a dork video and got a bit spoiled. Normally the dork videos are good about it, but I'm guessing he talked in a different dork video about where the story goes, because the way he talked, he presumed the audience knew where this was going. I did not. But just a heads up, spoilers are out there.

I heard a interesting take on a podcast this morning. The take was that after the first few seasons, GOT had a GRRM shaped hole in it because it ran out of the books, and the shows lacked the story building components that made GOT great. HOD has a D&D shaped hole in it that lacks the magic of getting some of the dialogue fleshed out and on screen as a charismatic performance. That's all paraphrased, but that's the jist of it.

And I think its right. There was some good stuff in there. The line, "I'd rather face Balereon himself than a 15 year old girl" is legitimately funny. But it lacked the Sean Bean humility or the Ian Glenn grizzled wisdom of similar comments. I had forgotten how funny it is when they say "7 hells", but it certainly doesn't land the same from a wooden performance than Mark Addy bellowing it at the top of his lungs.

I think that take is pretty accurate, but that's not me putting it on blast, they did a lot of stuff right. Daemon's performance was really nuanced and good IMO. And they got back to doing a nice job of setting up what's coming without some blocky stupid exposition that beats you over the head with it.

And I totally dorked out when she



That was awesome. I'm a ****ing 10 year old. LOL

The palpable unease in Viserys effectively courting his 12 year old cousin successfully outdid any sort of bids for an emotional response in a viewer than anything from GoT S8.