House of the Dragon

[Nighty_Knight]

Anyone else watching this. Just finished the season, it’s fantastic. The acting is solid, the tension build up has been good. It took nearly a full season but there is finally now a group I can get behind.

Anyone else watching it? Thoughts?

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I’ll get around to it, but episode one annoyed me. Heh heh.

 

[Ankari]

House of the Dragon is fantastic. The only grip I have is the time jumping. I know the book did this from what multiple sources claim, but I think they had so much depth to explore that was cut to match the book's pace.

Overall, great writing. The characters are real and I'm invested. I question how they handled Daemon at the end. He's violent, yes, but his love for his family is rarely portrayed in good light. I'd recommend this show to any fan of fantasy.

 

[skip.knox]

A number of aspects annoy me. A standard rule of thumb is don't have two or more of your main characters share the same starting letter. I recognize Martin is doing a Thing with the names, using the first name as a way to show family connection, but dang it does make it difficult to remember names. And when you have them share hair color or other physical attributes, you are almost inviting the reader/viewer to blur characters or even forget who they are. Doesn't seem like a wise narrative technique.

Daemon's behavior is arbitrary. When they want him to be violent, then he is, without much explanation or context. When they want him to be nice, he is, again without much explanation or context. They just move him around like a puppet. The scene in the final episode with his wife is a good example (no spoilers).

And that closing scene in the final episode just had me shaking my head. If dragons behave that way, they make for lousy war machines. If they were pilots, they'd be grounded or worse. (again, no spoilers).

When a show has one or two such lapses, I usually just let it slide. When it keeps tripping over its own feet, it starts to lose me. By the end of this first season, I had lost interest in most all of them. It typical Martin style, the one character who was both consistent and fleshed out (*chuckle), dies--King Viserys (ok, one spoiler). That's partly down to the tragic storyline for him, but also all props to the actor, who did a bang-up job.

 

[Nighty_Knight]

A number of aspects annoy me. A standard rule of thumb is don't have two or more of your main characters share the same starting letter. I recognize Martin is doing a Thing with the names, using the first name as a way to show family connection, but dang it does make it difficult to remember names. And when you have them share hair color or other physical attributes, you are almost inviting the reader/viewer to blur characters or even forget who they are. Doesn't seem like a wise narrative technique.

Daemon's behavior is arbitrary. When they want him to be violent, then he is, without much explanation or context. When they want him to be nice, he is, again without much explanation or context. They just move him around like a puppet. The scene in the final episode with his wife is a good example (no spoilers).

And that closing scene in the final episode just had me shaking my head. If dragons behave that way, they make for lousy war machines. If they were pilots, they'd be grounded or worse. (again, no spoilers).

When a show has one or two such lapses, I usually just let it slide. When it keeps tripping over its own feet, it starts to lose me. By the end of this first season, I had lost interest in most all of them. It typical Martin style, the one character who was both consistent and fleshed out (*chuckle), dies--King Viserys (ok, one spoiler). That's partly down to the tragic storyline for him, but also all props to the actor, who did a bang-up job.

From what I understand, Daemon's behavior was a little more consistent in the books. But all in all, he comes off like someone with little impulse control. I know a few people like that. They are nice but have absolute mean streaks in them if you set them off, and things like stress or even just someone doing something that triggers them will set them off.

As for the dragons, they are massive animals with kids riding them in that scene. Horses will do the same if you have one big one chasing a teenager on a much smaller one. I imagine having a veteran rider would do much better at keeping it in line.

 

[skip.knox]

Dragons: that works for the younger kid (the names blur), but the other has been portrayed as being accomplished in multiple arenas. He could control his dragon. The temperament angle is still relevant. He knows what will happen if he even attacks the kid, let alone do him harm. The king would never allow that, for it would risk everything. It was foolish and impulsive. It's as risky as attacking the kid while he was still in the castle. I would buy it if one-eye had been told to leave him alone but took off anyway. That would be in accordance with his rage. But that wasn't properly set up (haven't read the books).

As for Daemon, lacking impulse control? I read him a little differently. He's done many carefully calculated actions. Even his cruelty is calculated. But that action had almost no background to it, and his action was sort of pointless. What was the threat here? That he would kill his wife? Even dangling a foot off the ground, she can't have believed that, and certainly no viewer/reader would. He could just as well loomed over her, letting the threat of violence be clear and all the scarier. Worse, once it's over, it's as if it never happened (no marks on her neck? really?). She doesn't exhibit fear or resentment or much of anything. Daemon choked me? Oh well, on to the next plot point! So it wasn't just Daemon, it was the whole scene that didn't work for me.

 

[Nighty_Knight]

Dragons: that works for the younger kid (the names blur), but the other has been portrayed as being accomplished in multiple arenas. He could control his dragon. The temperament angle is still relevant. He knows what will happen if he even attacks the kid, let alone do him harm. The king would never allow that, for it would risk everything. It was foolish and impulsive. It's as risky as attacking the kid while he was still in the castle. I would buy it if one-eye had been told to leave him alone but took off anyway. That would be in accordance with his rage. But that wasn't properly set up (haven't read the books).

As for Daemon, lacking impulse control? I read him a little differently. He's done many carefully calculated actions. Even his cruelty is calculated. But that action had almost no background to it, and his action was sort of pointless. What was the threat here? That he would kill his wife? Even dangling a foot off the ground, she can't have believed that, and certainly no viewer/reader would. He could just as well loomed over her, letting the threat of violence be clear and all the scarier. Worse, once it's over, it's as if it never happened (no marks on her neck? really?). She doesn't exhibit fear or resentment or much of anything. Daemon choked me? Oh well, on to the next plot point! So it wasn't just Daemon, it was the whole scene that didn't work for me.

Aemond, (one eye) is still only 16 believe it or not. His dragon is over 100 years old and a veteran of over 100 battles. It was fine until it got attacked by Arrax when I assume it just went something to like this…

As for Daemon. He is totally calculated, but that doesn’t mean his impulses don’t get the better of him, and often. Although he has shown far better restraint at that point in the series. Hard to say why they added that though, I know he didn’t do that in the books. And he isn’t the type to harm people he actually cares about.

 

[Reaver]

Anyone else watching this. Just finished the season, it’s fantastic. The acting is solid, the tension build up has been good. It took nearly a full season but there is finally now a group I can get behind.

Anyone else watching it? Thoughts?

So far it’s been pretty great. I just hope that they avoid doing what GoT did in Season 8.

 

[gemmalynn01]

So far it’s been pretty great. I just hope that they avoid doing what GoT did in Season 8.

I totally agree. I am afraid, though. I hope they won't rush the storyline to wrap things up.

 

[Gurkhal]

I've read, most of, the books so I'm looking forward and hoping this will be a great series that I can pick up as a DVD collection in a few years. No, I don't watch much TV. I buy DVDs of shows and stuff I want.