House of the Dragon (Game of Thrones prequel series) Spoiler thread !post evening airing! - The Bear and Badger

LivDiv

The dragon riding still looks wrong.
I was trying to work it out. They have saddles now so it isnt as bad but the main thing is that to not be thrown around like a ragdoll they would have to be extremely well strapped in, like a rollercoaster overhead harness thing or be fucking hench.

Piggy princess would be thrown all over the shop.

Paul the sparky

Time skips too. Six months or more between episodes I think. For all the magic, dragons and crab feeders knocking about, there's a serious lack of interesting events happening. No wonder they're lining up to fight to the death in a tourney, the boredom must be excruciating

g.man

The show runner is that guy wot directed all the big battle episodes of GoT though, so presumably all of Westeros is going to meet in a field and pummel each other into oblivion at some point.

poprock

g.man wrote:

Ponderously slow so far, with little intrigue, or characters to get invested in …

Not having any characters to care about is a problem. Royal court drama in a time of relative peace doesn’t actually provide much drama. There are no underdogs, just a couple of strata of unlikeable posh people doing unlikeable posh people things. Nobody for the viewers to root for.

Look back to HBO’s Rome for a masterclass in how to do this stuff. Show us the story of the people on the ground, and how all this politicking affects their lives. Show them being thrown into suicide missions for the sake of some posh bastard’s vanity. Make us care.

g.man

I presume Poundland John Snow is going to step up to the plate at some point.

Paul the sparky

Rome was brilliant

ShabbyMcCrabby

g.man wrote:

The show runner is that guy wot directed all the big battle episodes of GoT though, so presumably all of Westeros is going to meet in a field and pummel each other into oblivion at some point.

Yeah that worried me. He did alright in the first one he did but then it became "a thing" and was worse for it. Also being dicks about how they mastered that one fight for cinema even though everyone was streaming and so no detail came through

mk64

yea, it's ok at the moment but none of it was a wow moment

I_R

I'm still liking it, this is mainly set up for the action to come.

My biggest gripe was the announcement from the king at the end. I know there's an element of making things visual for the audience and it adds a bit of drama, but a man who is concerned about diplomacy earlier in the same episode making a shock announcement in public, with everyone involved in the room was extremely dumb.

g.man

Yeah, all they needed after that was the Eastenders closing sting.

I_R

Haha, I was thinking corrie, but it was Mike Reid in the Queen Vic.

LivDiv

It feels like there is a bit of drama going missing.
Like his choice of wife, it was set up that he would choose her because they get on well but I dont really know how anyone else is supposed to feel about that.
The Hand is obviously going to be chuffed but there wasn't really any attempt at him pushing for it, nor someone maybe warning him not to go her. How does Princess feel about it? I dont really know.

Corlys (black guy) wanted their 4 year old (apparently 12, looked 4) but that was kind of done in one scene with a ridiculous wig. Now he is pissed off and conniving with Uncle. Auntie seems to be wafting around, where are the scenes with her and her husband discussing their plans or disagreeing on approach. I thought Auntie was going to be another Cersei maybe with a bit of Varys working all sides but she is more like a wayward husk.

It feels like some interesting conniving happened in the 6 months we missed and now we are being told about it.

hunk

Still liking it more than disliking it.
It's basically a GoT within the Targ dynasty with the different 'factions' being established within the Targaryan family tree. See the family tree spoiler.

Also, it's not the King's sister Corlis Valeryan is married to but rather his cousin; The queen that never was.

Spoiler:

hunk

There's now really only 1 spoiler hidden within the family tree, the rest has been already, more or less revealed and hinted at in ep.1 and 2.

LivDiv

Oh sorry I thought that was the king's sister not cousin.
I mean it all ends up being the same with Targs doesnt it?
The point still stands, she supposed to be queen but for a lack of a cock. The obvious drama there is Princess being declared heir but she hasn't risen to argue it just warned Princess that her position means nothing.

hunk

Indeed, she was first in line of succession but was passed over because of lack of penis. Instead, the throne went to her cousin. But aye, doesn't really change the setup of the story. Or the weird incest coming up.

Moot_Geeza

There's an amazing bit in episode 2 where it sounds like a police siren cuts short a bit of argy-bargy on a bridge.

Spoiler:

Paul the sparky

LivDiv wrote:

It feels like there is a bit of drama going missing.
Like his choice of wife, it was set up that he would choose her because they get on well but I dont really know how anyone else is supposed to feel about that.
The Hand is obviously going to be chuffed but there wasn't really any attempt at him pushing for it, nor someone maybe warning him not to go her. How does Princess feel about it? I dont really know.

Corlys (black guy) wanted their 4 year old (apparently 12, looked 4) but that was kind of done in one scene with a ridiculous wig. Now he is pissed off and conniving with Uncle. Auntie seems to be wafting around, where are the scenes with her and her husband discussing their plans or disagreeing on approach. I thought Auntie was going to be another Cersei maybe with a bit of Varys working all sides but she is more like a wayward husk.

It feels like some interesting conniving happened in the 6 months we missed and now we are being told about it.

Agree. I feel like there are a few characters which should be full on Characters yet they end up feeling like a bit of set dressing

Paul the sparky

Bit of action in this one then. Still seems to be treading water story wise. I feel like this could have been the opener and I'd have missed fuck all of importance

I_R

I liked the hunt more than the battle. The set up for all the action didn't make too much sense and Daemon got some strong plot armour. Worth it for that diagonally sliced torso and the final shot of his hair and face soaked in blood. Matt Smith has really made Daemon work.

Considine really knocking it out of the park though, that long day of emotional swings and getting slowly drunk was something else.

Other great stuff was Lannister overselling himself the the princess, then managing to piss off the king. Otto being bossed by his brother, he's Littlefinger, not Tywin. Princess going stabby at the boar the same way Daemon uses his helmet on the messenger.

hunk

Ep3 was good.
Big jumps in time though. It's like a 1-1.5 year jump per episode. The Valeryan lad is suddenly 16-17 and riding dragons? Was hoping the crab king guy would last the season as he would make for an interesting villain. Lasted for 3eps. Oh well....

Paul the sparky

I didn't understand the set up for the battle/siege either. The gimp is holed up in a cave but it's the other army which is running out of food and supplies?

Can't they get more? Don't the dragons pretty much ensure that the good guys have their supply routes protected?

handsofblue

I was having a grand old time until it cut to Daemon and the Sea Snake and his son's dodgy acting. Made no sense. Unless Daemon is actually dick enough to have waited two years, sending his and Corlys' men to death, until his brother relented and sent aid, and then took the Crab man out in a spectacularly plot armoured raid on their coastal hideout, all just to prove he didn't need the King's help?

Arrows rain down in bunches, btw, they don't woosh down in ordered lines that just happen to ALWAYS land behind Daemon.

Loved the classic "got you surrounded but we're not gonna rush you and chop off your head now that we have the numbers to obliterate you" part.

I hate action that makes no sense.

We also had questions about how Crab man could provision an army for so long. Couldn't figure out who was on the dragon either, thanks, Hunk.

I_R

I took it as being pretty explicit that Daemon was that much of a dick that he was doing the crazy plan before help arrived.

But yeah, pirates hanging on for years versus dragons makes very little sense. Daemon is a huge arsehole, so is going to cause problems, but Corlys is supposed to be massively wealthy and have loads of ships. Why do pirates even hang around to fight them.

hunk

Only Targs are allowed to ride dragons so besides Daemon that's the SeaSnake's son?
That last scene is Daemon definitely being enraged at his brother and wanting to prove he doesn't need his help in defeating the crab king. The war's been raging on for 1-2 years so I'm guessing funds and soldiers were running low hence the king's friendly gesture.

monkey

There's good performances in this show but the characters are pretty dull and the action is dumb.

handsofblue

That is an extreme level of dick-ness. Something about the set up just left me confused even though I seem to have come to the correct conclusion. Maybe it's the first two eps gave us a Daemon that was an arrogant arsehole with an iron fist but I wasn't expecting him to just use men as fodder while he waited patiently to prove a point.

Kow

I'm surprised that Matt Smith is so good in this. As long as doesn't talk much. His whiny nasal voice is very off putting.

drumbeg

I enjoyed the episode, but agree, this was very silly. The jump from Ep2 - Ep3 of a couple of years was grating, but then to sell us that the war has been going all this time, presumably because one side didn't feel comfortable entering some caves, was daft.

In the end, the masterplan being a case of pretend to surrender, then torch everyone when they come out of the caves.

Like I say though, enjoying it for what it is. Badly burned by the end of Thrones so will keep my expectations in check.

Paul the sparky

The plan relied upon the evil pirate torture death cult acting with honour while accepting his surrender and not just filling him with arrows. That's not really hit me until now

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