House of the Dragon 1x01 "Heirs of the Dragon"

[Frustration]

It seems to me like it would have been a better idea to have an entire season with the young cast, then have the time skip in-between seasons. Did they not feel they had enough content for even one of today's super-short seasons?

[TGLS]

If I understand correctly they felt they couldn't keep the pace they wanted.

[CharlesPhipps]

It seems to me like it would have been a better idea to have an entire season with the young cast, then have the time skip in-between seasons. Did they not feel they had enough content for even one of today's super-short seasons?

HBO executives had a weird hot and cold relationship with HOTD. They agreed to give a massive budget to the show but they also wanted them to get to the Dance of the Dragons as fast as possible. Despite the fact that most of the good intrigue and relationships is the stuff leading to the Dance of the Dragons.

[McAvoy]

It seems to me like it would have been a better idea to have an entire season with the young cast, then have the time skip in-between seasons. Did they not feel they had enough content for even one of today's super-short seasons?

HBO executives had a weird hot and cold relationship with HOTD. They agreed to give a massive budget to the show but they also wanted them to get to the Dance of the Dragons as fast as possible. Despite the fact that most of the good intrigue and relationships is the stuff leading to the Dance of the Dragons.

That's a problem. The pacing is too fast for this type of show.

At least with The Crown the actors had two seasons worth with their characters. This show five episodes and unless they do a flashback we may not see them again.

It's not like the actors who played the young versions are teenagers themselves either. For example the two actresses who play Rhaenyra are 22 and 30.

TBH, first season should have been the setup with the young crew, second season would be build up to the Civil War with the older crew. Ten episodes each to get to know each version of the character.

HBO getting too involved with the pacing isn't good.

[CharlesPhipps]

https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogs ... eview.html

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 1x07 "DRIFTMARK" is an improvement over the previous episode and gives me hope that we're going to be getting over the massive time skips that leave absolutely no consequences to events like Criston Cole's murder of a guest during a royal wedding as well as sparing a knight from suicide. This takes place a reasomable amount of time after the previous episode and is mostly spent dealing with the emotional fallout that has been so far badly lacking from the series.

The premise of this episode is that the various factions of Westeros' royal court have gathered together for Laena Targaryen's funeral. It is happening at Driftmark and all the simmering tensions are coming to a head. There's Daemon's branch of the family, Rhaenyra's spawn, Alicent's scummy little sprogs, King Viserys trying to be peacemaker in a family that hates each other, and the Velaryons. It's really a royal **** show and that just makes it all the better.

Oddly, the MVP of the episode for me is Corlys Velaryon because of his relationship with the obviously not-his-blood grandchildren. I come from a family that included adoption and married an adopted woman, so I am strongly supportive families that don't involve blood kin. Corlys clearly views them as his grandsons and heirs and I like how Rhaenys, his wife, is flat out confused about how her ambitious husband doesn't see this as a problem. It actually implies to me that Laenor may have gotten this attitude from his father.

Speaking of Rhaenys, it's interesting to see someone who is just tired of all the court infighting and scheming as well as someone who has given up on the idea of making a name for herself. She was someone who could have been a contender but given the decades long time jump, has been worn down by it all and now just wants to retire. It's an image of what could have happened to Rhaenyra if she'd chosen to cast aside her ambitions.

Alicent Hightower continues to be portrayed by Olivia Cooke as a vindictive spiteful woman with a possible personality disorder. I buy the dramatic change given the ten year time skip and we even have it textually spelled out she's jealous as well as hate-filled due to the fact Rhaenyra has been able to largely live outside the confines of a woman's expected place in Westeros' patriarchal society. Still, people have expressed how much they missed the more sympathetic Alienct from the first five episodes.

Emma D'Arcy's Rhaenyra is a character I think has been well-served by the time skip as she's actually come to the realization she needs to look after her future after thirty odd years of doing what she wanted. For her children's sake if not for herself. Unfortunately, the die has already been cast and Alicent wants her dead as well as her children. The kind of accusations thrown at them are not something that can easily be cast aside and her husband, Laenor, is a liability since he's been sort of a load for the entirety of their marriage.'

Rhaenyra may overestimate Daemon Targaryen, though, since she sees him as the kind of badass warrior prince she needs to kill everyone who stands in the way of her to the throne. Daemon is more or less ignoring his daughters and struggling with his desire for Rhaenyra that he thinks he "saved" by not seducing a decade earlier. Rhaenyra says that wasn't his choice to make and certainly didn't help their situation in any way. Given this is an uncle-niece relationship, I go "ahhh", but Targaryens gonna Targaryen.

My biggest disappointment in the episode, really, is Laenor because my fears about his use in the show was realized. I was never overly concerned about the "Bury the Gays" trope (which I probably should be as a Cis Het man) but the fact that he was just going to show up, stand in the background, and eventually get shoved off stage to get to Daemon/Rhaenyra. Which is pretty much what happens and I feel like is a massive-massive waste of his character.

The children have a big role in the story, particularly Prince Aemond, who is actually the most important Green during the dance aside from Alicent herself. He claims the largest of the dragons in Westeros and goes immediately from being an unimportant second son to one who could become king himself if he desired it. That fits into the larger theme of second sons having no power other what they seize for himself and he's changed the game so the Greens are no longer merely annoying but actually dangerous. We also see a likable bullied boy go from zero to monster in a few scenes too.

In conclusion, this was a better episode than the previous one with lots of emotional beats I enjoyed. I hope it will continue to follow up the events of episodes without any more enormous time skips. I still had some issues with how they sort of casually write out characters that should have full arcs but there's no use complaining about spilled milk too. Indeed, my biggest complaint is they tried to fake out the audience with what our characters decide to do when they could have shown them discussing it--which I feel would have been interesting on its own. My second biggest complaint is that the episode is dark, literally so, and I could barely see what happened half the time.

8/10

[stryke]

What I was hoping for is finally happening, in that there's finally some genuine wit and/or spark to some of the lines to break up the dreariness which had threatened to make the show all too monotonous early on as they didn't have an Ayra or Tyrion around to puncture the mood.

The house words, the reasoning for not wanting driftmark, the gods being cruel, the you stand revealed, and the totally worth it ones were all great. Also really thought that the kid fight was done so very well. That little girl had one hell of a right, and the sounds effects made it sound like she really connected in a deeply satisying manner.

[McAvoy]

I am assuming the kids will be replaced by older actors when the whole Dance of Dragons thing will actually happen. They are supposed to be fighting in the family civil war. I don't see these kids doing that.

I haven't seen the previews for next episode but I am thinking either episode 8 or 9 will be the episode where Viseryes will die. Then the aftermath and the start of the conflict.

[stryke]

Genuinely stunned by how much this show has improved over this first season from a very shaky first couple of episodes. Back then I was wondering what the point of the whole exercise was, and now I'm entirely hooked.

[CharlesPhipps]

https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogs ... eview.html

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 1x08 "THE LORD OF THE TIDES" is one of the biggest episodes in the series and it's interesting because it is one of the quieter ones. While there's yet another unnecessary time skip, it carries over from the previous episode's development so I'm able to ignore it.

It is a powerful episode with a lot of character development as well as culmination of several important plot arcs. I wouldn't say it's my favorite of the episodes but it is strong enough that I am going to say the show has bounced back from several issues it had previously been suffering due to the constant barrelling forward without pausing to analyze previous characterization.

The premise is Ser Vaemond Velaryon, brother of Corlys, is making a play to become Lord of Driftmark. Corlys has gotten himself severely injured fighting in the Stepstones and this is understandable since the guy has to be, in-universe, in his sixties at the very least. Vaemond also has the point that the official heirs of Driftmark are, in fact, Rhaenyra's bastards with no Velaryon blood in their veins. It should be noted by my pendantic Westerosi scholar heart, though, that he's still not the heir but Daemon's daughters as female children come before uncles in the Andal tradition.

Ser Vaemond has an ace in the hole to forward his claim because he is going to be taking it before Ser Otto Hightower as he's acting as regent for the dying bedridden King Viserys. Given Otto wants more than anything to disinherit Rhaenyra and her heirs, it seems like a slam dunk. Unfortunately, for Otto, Rhaenyra is warned about his treacherous plan and heads to King's Landing where the Hightowers are hiding behind religion as well as have attempted to remove all of her supporters.

Alicent also has an interesting balance between being her darker ruthless side with her nicer more mothering side. Some of the things she does are unforgivable like the fact she covers up for her son's rape in what I'm sure is meant to be an invocation of several other mothers doing the same for afluent white kids in today's society. She also attempts to reconcile with Rhaenyra after one last tragic plea by Viserys before it is all ruined by a misunderstanding.

Speaking of Viserys, Paddy Considine is the MVP of the episode with his best performance yet. He really deserves a Emmy nod if not the actual award. Using the very last of his life, he manages to thwart the Hightower's attempt to seize power. He may not have been a good king but he was a good man (ignoring the whole killing his wife during childbirth thing). He finally dies at the end of the episode but it was after his best act of kingsmanship.

I also have to give credit for the establishing of the stakes between the sons of Alicent Hightower with the sons of Rhaenyra. Some people complain about the fact that the Blacks are being shown to be superior morally while the Greens are shown to be monsters. You know? I have no problem with that whatsoever. The Greens were scum in the books and the Blacks were far more likable, the show is just following suit.

I do have an issue with the fact that Viserys' last words seem to be what gets Alicent to decide on betraying Rhaenyra to crown her son. But not much of an issue as I don't think that she would have honored Viserys' wishes anyway. She's spent twenty years grasping for power and trying to think she was justified in the process. People make too much of the misunderstanding when Alicent clearly was ignoring he was out of his mind. All she wanted was some sort of sign that he wanted Aegon to be on the throne and would have interpreted anything her way (which she did).

[McAvoy]

Yeah if I recall Queen Alicent was a scheming person looking to further her family and her children.

Even the allegations on Rhaenyra's children (the non-white hair) there is some speculation that it might not be true they are bastards and her relation with Strong was just gossip. They made it true and more obvious in the show that they are.

In series and books, the white hair isn't necessarily constant especially when mixing with other families. Jon Snow for example.

The show did a good job in making even the Greens more sympathetic than compared in the books.

I can't remember if One Eye was supposed to be a reflection of Daemon in the books or not. But it is interesting especially what will happen later.