HBO's Game of Thrones Prequel House of Dragons

[Agent23]

2 hours ago, mikemack8 said:

Curious which "side" everyone prefers so far - of those who care enough to choose sides.

While they're all deplorable, I think I'm firmly on the side of the Blacks

Rhaynera is the heir, as commanded by the king. People in the real world, including celebrities or "royalty” in areas where that’s a thing, don’t lose their job because of adultery or other things. Her having **** children should have zero effect on her succession plan to the throne. 
 

Her dad became king because the previous king (his grandfather) had all his sons pre-decease him, so it was left to his eldest female descendant or eldest male descendent, and he let the realm vote instead of deciding himself. Realm chose the male. But King V can do as he wishes and he chose his daughter, so that’s it. Now, when she dies, the succession path would be her oldest son - but having no trueborns, I’m fine with the throne passing from Rhaynera to Aegon (V and Alicent’s oldest). 
 

What I don’t understand is why Alicent had been so dead set on her kids became heirs when she was some random teenage girl just taking orders from daddy to keep the king company and then to marry him. If Rhaynera was pulling a Cersei and plotting to kill Alicent’s children the moment her father dies, I could see Alicent’s point. But Rhay has had zero ill will or intentions towards her younger half-brothers 

[dawkins4prez]

31 minutes ago, Agent23 said:

What I don’t understand is why Alicent had been so dead set on her kids became heirs when she was some random teenage girl just taking orders from daddy to keep the king company and then to marry him. If Rhaynera was pulling a Cersei and plotting to kill Alicent’s children the moment her father dies, I could see Alicent’s point. But Rhay has had zero ill will or intentions towards her younger half-brothers 

Her dad was the one who gave her the "win or die" speech.  Is it a tragic case where each woman simply assumed the other was going after her children and they kept escalating?  I guess so, that would seem to be why they are taking so long setting the tables here. 

[Agent23]

On a side note: any The Watch/Andy Greenwald-Chris Ryan fans in here? I’m catching up on their podcast from the episode with the 10yr time jump and new female leads. Anyways, talking about how Viserys collapses at the wedding in 5 after spending 2-3 years on deaths door, then 10yr time jump and he’s still going. They said something along the lines "at this point I just want him to live for like 5-6 seasons, increasingly looking more and more like the Crypt Keeper” and I’ve been laughing at that image for like 10 mins now. Good times. 

[mikemack8]

2 hours ago, Agent23 said:

On a side note: any The Watch/Andy Greenwald-Chris Ryan fans in here? I’m catching up on their podcast from the episode with the 10yr time jump and new female leads. Anyways, talking about how Viserys collapses at the wedding in 5 after spending 2-3 years on deaths door, then 10yr time jump and he’s still going. They said something along the lines "at this point I just want him to live for like 5-6 seasons, increasingly looking more and more like the Crypt Keeper” and I’ve been laughing at that image for like 10 mins now. Good times. 

They’re both super dorky and Greenwald is really full of himself but I listen to them.  Ryan is a birds fan which helps

[Agent23]

37 minutes ago, mikemack8 said:

They’re both super dorky and Greenwald is really full of himself but I listen to them.  Ryan is a birds fan which helps

They’re both big Philadelphia fans (and from the area) which is why I figured they may have some other listeners in here. What’s wild is how dorky they are in a lot of ways, yet they grew up (professionally) covering and writing about hip hop and meeting/interviewing people in that industry  

[Agent23]

Not gonna lie. Viserys would be a dope Halloween costume  

[Agent23]

 

[mikemack8]

That episode was absolute fire

[Mat]

Best ep of this series so far. Really, really good TV

[DBW]

9 hours ago, Agent23 said:

Not gonna lie. Viserys would be a dope Halloween costume  

Only problem is it would take too long to walk up to each house to get the candy.  

[Agent23]

Watching this show brings me so much joy. Daemon is the definition of F around and find out. Daemon had a solid bond with his brothers daughter 20ish years ago (adding 4 years to the 10yr and 6yr time jumps, because when he gives her the necklace in the pilot you can tell they had a legit bond for several years prior and I want to focus on the time before Daemon tried to seduce her).

You can only image if things were different how much he would adore his second nephew who appears to be a badass even if half the world is in darkness! 

[Mike030270]

[The_Omega]

The King should have fired that Hightower snake, again, and made Daemon the Hand of the King.

[Gannan]

Daemon is an all time great character. The show has made me care about the new characters as much as the classic GoT characters. The series is better than I could have hoped for.

[Agent23]

On 10/10/2022 at 4:19 PM, The_Omega said:

The King should have fired that Hightower snake, again, and made Daemon the Hand of the King.

As much as he thrived (at what verrrryyyyy brief stint we saw) at Captain of the City Watch -- or whatever the "leader" of that group is called -- I have never gotten the impression that Daemon wants to rule. Hand of the King, even when the King is healthy and present, is basically running the Kingdom... I don't see that as what Daemon would want to deal with at all. 

13 hours ago, Gannan said:

Daemon is an all time great character. The show has made me care about the new characters as much as the classic GoT characters. The series is better than I could have hoped for.

The twitter love/memes/comments featuring him every Sunday night is one of the greatest moments of every week for me. 

[Agent23]

 

[dawkins4prez]

This show is straight up trash but Paddy Considine just put the bow on a phenomenal performance.  Give that man an Emmy.

[Gannan]

23 minutes ago, dawkins4prez said:

This show is straight up trash

29 million people beg to differ

[dawkins4prez]

48 minutes ago, Gannan said:

29 million people beg to differ

Straight trash is a bit harsh.  I give it props for inventing a new sub genre, the male fantasy daytime soap opera.  There is no point in comparing this to its cinematic predecessor or Rings of Power, it's a totally different animal.  It's trying to be Succession/The Crown, with Dragons.  But the time jumps are so clumsy and 8 hours in the characters are still the exact same 1 notes they were introduced as (1 or 2 exceptions like Viserys).  The twists are lame and the shock value deaths are laughable. The stakes are virtually nonexistent, a bunch of cousin f'ers fighting over the grotesque purity of their lineages.  It's got some strong moments, it really pulls you in with its raw intimacy, births/deaths/family chaos.  But then it throws that all to the wind in the name of checking bullet points at a breakneck pace.

 

I mean c'mon.  Daddy murders the great uncle that they lived with their entire lives, and the girls are all smiles at dinner later that night.  You can do that with hokey show dealing with bigger issues, but in a show that is all about up and close and personal it comes off as a major plot hole.

[Mike030270]

3 hours ago, Agent23 said:

 

That's during his speech to the kings hand and way before he calls them **** and her a **** then gets his head sliced

Quote

When the doom fell on Valyria our houses became the last of their king. Our forebearers came to this new land knowing that were they to fail it would mean the end to their bloodlines and their name

That clip is when he is saying bloodlines and their name

[Agent23]

2 hours ago, dawkins4prez said:

Straight trash is a bit harsh.  I give it props for inventing a new sub genre, the male fantasy daytime soap opera.  There is no point in comparing this to its cinematic predecessor or Rings of Power, it's a totally different animal.  It's trying to be Succession/The Crown, with Dragons.  But the time jumps are so clumsy and 8 hours in the characters are still the exact same 1 notes they were introduced as (1 or 2 exceptions like Viserys).  The twists are lame and the shock value deaths are laughable. The stakes are virtually nonexistent, a bunch of cousin f'ers fighting over the grotesque purity of their lineages.  It's got some strong moments, it really pulls you in with its raw intimacy, births/deaths/family chaos.  But then it throws that all to the wind in the name of checking bullet points at a breakneck pace.

 

I mean c'mon.  Daddy murders the great uncle that they lived with their entire lives, and the girls are all smiles at dinner later that night.  You can do that with hokey show dealing with bigger issues, but in a show that is all about up and close and personal it comes off as a major plot hole.

Daemon and Leana were living in Pentos for years with their daughters and my guess is somewhere else before then. I doubt Daemon ever lived or spent more than a few nights at Driftmark. Then present day him and Rhaeynra have been at Dragonstone with one of his daughters for assuredly 6 years since their marriage. Only one daughter has lived at Driftmark with her grandparents. 
 

Flashing back to GOT, if nobody died and lived to old age and Bran wasn’t paralyzed, Robb Stark is one day taking over winterfell. Do you think Bran and Rickon are just squatting there forever? Nah. They’re becoming knights and off who knows where. Same thing with the second son of Driftmark. He’s not living at his older brothers home. This dude probably is his own captain that controls a portion of a fleet and is living elsewhere, never seeing his brothers grand daughters, and probably spending most of his time on a ship as a water-knight. 

[dawkins4prez]

1 hour ago, Agent23 said:

Daemon and Leana were living in Pentos for years with their daughters and my guess is somewhere else before then. I doubt Daemon ever lived or spent more than a few nights at Driftmark. Then present day him and Rhaeynra have been at Dragonstone with one of his daughters for assuredly 6 years since their marriage. Only one daughter has lived at Driftmark with her grandparents. 
 

Flashing back to GOT, if nobody died and lived to old age and Bran wasn’t paralyzed, Robb Stark is one day taking over winterfell. Do you think Bran and Rickon are just squatting there forever? Nah. They’re becoming knights and off who knows where. Same thing with the second son of Driftmark. He’s not living at his older brothers home. This dude probably is his own captain that controls a portion of a fleet and is living elsewhere, never seeing his brothers grand daughters, and probably spending most of his time on a ship as a water-knight. 

Sure I'll buy that.  You can fill in the blanks however you want if you're willing to put in the effort.  But this is the guy who did the ceremonies at their mother's funeral (the only real time we spent with these girls).  We don't know how much time he spends at the Driftmark but we do know he happens to be chilling there at every scene we see there.  That's goofy storytelling.  In the ultra insular world in which they live in where the only marriage prospects are to cousins and uncles, the eye witness murder of a said uncle who has habitated the only important moments worthy of screen time should kinda be a big deal.

[mikemack8]

45 minutes ago, dawkins4prez said:

Sure I'll buy that.  You can fill in the blanks however you want if you're willing to put in the effort.  But this is the guy who did the ceremonies at their mother's funeral (the only real time we spent with these girls).  We don't know how much time he spends at the Driftmark but we do know he happens to be chilling there at every scene we see there.  That's goofy storytelling.  In the ultra insular world in which they live in where the only marriage prospects are to cousins and uncles, the eye witness murder of a said uncle who has habitated the only important moments worthy of screen time should kinda be a big deal.

If he hadn’t been there and had shown up just to stake his claim and then got his head lopped off, you’d have been ****ing that there was no character development and why should we care about someone who we barely know dying.  

[dawkins4prez]

10 hours ago, mikemack8 said:

If he hadn’t been there and had shown up just to stake his claim and then got his head lopped off, you’d have been ****ing that there was no character development and why should we care about someone who we barely know dying.  

Well, yeah, that too!  Look, I really want to like this show.  I thought it had hit its groove around episode 2-3.  About 4 clumsy time jumps later I feel like I'm being had.  My fave GoT character was Littlefinger and this was sold as a court intrigue drama.  It started off great with Otto Hightower's opening move of sending his daughter to seduce the king.  Since then it's been cheap shock murders, attempted murders and suicides (of a bunch of nobodys we never cared about) and a rat race to see who can cousin-uncle F their way to the strongest claim.  A far, far cry from the sophisticated machinations of Littelfinger and Varys or the jaw drop of Ned's beheading.  It was also supposed to be about dragon duels.  I think its unconscionable that 8 hours in we haven't had one yet. 8 hours!  That's a movie trilogy folks.

 

Maybe worst of all we never get to see Martin's main character, Westeros.  The other houses were involved early on, they've all practically disappeared now.  The commoners these people rule over are barely a side note.  They are grudgingly referred to as the "will of the people", their wants and needs a casual off remark about the good of the realm (and is there any character here who actually cares about the good of the realm?).  We just go from years to years, bouncing between indistinguishable dusty old keeps, tracking which new actor is playing who to keep us busy in lieu of a non existent plot.

 

Somehow, someway, Paddy Considine has bailed the show out all season long.  It hasn't mattered how ridiculous, redundant or tedious the events, that dude has saved the show with a magnus opus of a performance.  A flawless ying-yang of omnipotence and vulnerability.  That dinner scene had no business being any good, but Paddy turned it into maybe the show's most memorable.  He's outdone his Succession counterpart Brian Cox imho.  With Viserys finally out of the picture I'm struggling hard to find someone I want to watch next week, so they better get to those Dragon Jousts pronto.

[mikemack8]

I see what you're saying about the time jumps - I don't know how they could have handled it any differently.  They want to get to the civil war, but they wanted us to know a little about the folks in it and how they got to that point.  I suppose they could have really fleshed this baby out and only done these huge time jumps between seasons, but would the audience have had the patience for that after way GoT ended?  Guess we'll never know.