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GOT - House of the Dragon


J.T.

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Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen is probably as close as we are going to get to Elric of Melnibone in our lifetime.  What a gloriously amoral, pasty, bleach blonde bastard.

Edited by J.T.
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38 minutes ago, J.T. said:

Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen is probably as close as we are going to get to Elric of Melnibone in our lifetime.  What a gloriously amoral, pasty, bleach blonde bastard.

Never trust a knight with bat wings on his helm. 

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This will flop hard. Matt Smith cast as "the most experienced warrior of his time"?. Good to see they've maintained the immaculate decision making process that informed the final few seasons of GoT

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People seemed to have liked it. I think it's lucky it's on HBO and not Max considering. To me the biggest issue is lack of stakes. Just on paper, one element that the LOTR show has going for it is that the things that happen in it will be very important for what people know and are familiar with. With this, you get gold cloaks and a prophecy that ultimately won't matter because the line will be broken and it'll stop getting passed down. 

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3 hours ago, Matt D said:

People seemed to have liked it. I think it's lucky it's on HBO and not Max considering. To me the biggest issue is lack of stakes. Just on paper, one element that the LOTR show has going for it is that the things that happen in it will be very important for what people know and are familiar with. With this, you get gold cloaks and a prophecy that ultimately won't matter because the line will be broken and it'll stop getting passed down. 

It could be argued that Better Call Saul had a lack of stakes, but it turned out more than fine.

Good writing can make the journey exciting even if the destination is known.  Hopefully we get that here.

Also, apparently, the book that this series is based on is written from the perspective of a second-hand retelling of events. So, it opens it up to some interesting choices if they choose to.  There has already been one hint at this show showing us things through differing (and maybe unreliable) views. 

Spoiler

Otto claims that Daemon toasted the "Heir for a day", but the scene in the brothel cuts out before his speech.  Did he really say that?

 

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6 hours ago, Log said:

It could be argued that Better Call Saul had a lack of stakes, but it turned out more than fine.

I'm cold on this whole deal and am only watching it to keep up with other people, but if this show produces a Kim or Nacho or Lalo it will all be worth it.

In other news, missed it by that much.

 

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3 hours ago, John from Cincinnati said:

I'm cold on this whole deal and am only watching it to keep up with other people, but if this show produces a Kim or Nacho or Lalo it will all be worth it.

In other news, missed it by that much.

 

Largest audience in HBO’s history for a new series premiere.

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I dug the first episode. I don't know if there is enough meat on the bone for a full series, but it was nice to be back in the world and it genuinely surprised me how enjoyable it was. Gonna keep an open mind for the season.

Did not recognize Paddy Considine at all, long blonde hair is such a strange look for him. Nor do I recall ever seeing him play such a sad sack.

Spoiler for who I think is going to be the season 1 shocking death

Spoiler

Matt Smith. Maybe that won't be too shocking, but I think he gets killed right when it looks like he is going to ascend to the throne. Is he the kind that would sign on to do multiple seasons of a show at this point in his career?

Viserys is clearly marked for death, with his sore and the whole first ep being about his heir, so his dying won't be shocking at all. Who knows but I can't see them killing Rhaenyra this year, though I don't think she is untouchable. The first episode didn't really establish anyone else as indispensable to the plot

I enjoyed how grumpy ass the Stark we briefly saw was. That family never has any fun

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Huh, this was...pretty good? I actually enjoyed the tonal difference between what GoT was and HotD is. I liked seeing Kings Landing not be a total shithole, I liked seeing a functional government, I liked seeing discussions and arguments over how government should work, I liked seeing life or death situations where you need to decide between the wife or the child which felt way too much like "Call the Midwife" but it still worked for me, I liked seeing basically everyone act pretty normal. Hell, I'll even say Daemon acted normal because no society is without its assholes.

And I think the fact that we're not going to be fucking around with end of the world big bads like the Night King that will just wind up ending in disappointment will be an overall improvement to the series. Yeah, we got some really cool scenes with the walkers and Wights fucking everyone up, Jon Snow discovering the power of dragon glass, the Night King doing the come at me bro pose, but ultimately, who gives a shit if the end point to all of that is a giant smelly turd?

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I can't tell you how much of a breath of fresh air it is to just see a normal, functioning government of Westeros without a completely fucked up and lunatic family running for the Iron Throne. Viserys is just the best dude and is stuck in a completely shit situation where he's being forced to marry and the options for him are to marry a fucking 12 year old or look worse for not having a queen. And that the prospect of marrying a child kinda sickens him feels nice and normal in a way that Game of Thrones wasn't. Like, yes, no one should ever want to marry a 12 year old for any reason. And the drama between him and Daemon is actually interesting and I don't know how it will play out.

The other interesting thing is what is going on with Viserys health wise. He had that sore on his back last week and this week they described it as "the rot" moving to his finger. What in the fuck. The shot of him sticking his hand in maggots was the beginning of Wrath of Khan levels of grossness.

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The second episode actually went up in viewers, which you almost never see in this era of TV.

 

I’m finding myself very sympathetic to Viserys through 2 episodes. I’ve read enough GRRM to know that’s a mistake in the long run, but I can’t help it. A very different character than we’re used to seeing in power in Westeros, and a low key great performance by Paddy.

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I think what helps with Viserys and the thing that makes me think he isn't going to be a piece of shit is that he didn't want the crown. He just seems like a dude that wanted or wants a normal life, but because of multiple circumstances, he had to ascend to the throne. Everyone else who actively wants the throne either already is or turns into a piece of shit.

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I'm digging this series so far. I think there are a lot of interesting things going on, but I don't find any of the characters all that compelling yet. I don't mean that as a knock on the actors. They're all great. I just mean there isn't a Tyrion or whatever that jumps out at you as interesting right away. Daemon is the closest, but we haven't had a lot of him yet. I'm sure that'll change.

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56 minutes ago, Craig H said:

I think what helps with Viserys and the thing that makes me think he isn't going to be a piece of shit is that he didn't want the crown. He just seems like a dude that wanted or wants a normal life, but because of multiple circumstances, he had to ascend to the throne. Everyone else who actively wants the throne either already is or turns into a piece of shit.

This quote is attributed to Gore Vidal: "Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so." So you get Viserys, who doesn't want to be a tyrant, but also not capable of understanding all the scheming going on around him. And then you get Daemon, the classic "second son" situation in an aristocracy, who also appears to be a sociopath.

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I think Viserys understands the scheming going on around him because he does have honest advisers, but I don't think he has any appetite for it. At the same time, he can't relinquish the throne because he knows his brother is a nut case and the kingdom would be worse off with Daemon as king, so the dude is kind of stuck. Not to mention, guy had to make a choice between his wife or his child, something I kind of had to do when my first born was born, and he wound up losing both. And now they want to hook him up with a child and the risk of not doing so is losing control of their navy.

Viserys is stuck in the worst of shit sandwiches. In another life, I think he would have been perfectly content to live almost like the Starks and just have his life with his wife and his daughter. Instead, now the only thing that seems to bring him joy are conversations with his daughter's best friend and playing with his models. I feel bad for the guy, which is something I don't think I ever felt for almost anyone from Game of Thrones.

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3 minutes ago, Craig H said:

BTW, the more they talk about Valyria, the more I wish we had a prequel series for what lead to the fall of Valyria.

It's weird having the Doom of Valyria being so close to what happens in the last show. That felt like two thousand years ago or something.

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They way they've mentioned it in the last two episodes, the place sounded amazing and the fall of it sounds like the fall of Rome, but even more epic...and with tons of dragons. Plus somewhere along the way we get grayscale zombies or something.

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So far, this show is benefiting from a core cast and one primary location.

It could really use a comedy relief character. GoT was often unrelentingly bleak, to its own detriment, and even they had some lols.

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