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HBO's House of the Dragon - BOOKFAGS THREAD


NorthLoop

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Warning: SPOILERS (obviously) from the "Fire and Blood" novel in this thread. 

 

Figured we could get this started before someone posted something spoilery on the other thread and had the dum dum's lose their collective minds over it. 

So, checking out the imdb cast of HotD I noticed a lot of characters that weren't there, or only had 1 episode listed for 2022 (mainly Rhaenyra's children and Alicent's children). This tells me that we won't get into the real good shit until at least season 2. Season 1 will be a lot of Rhaenyra whoring it up. 

 

Some notes: 

 - I'm curious if they'll go full out with all the child murdering or if they'll dial it back a bit, or change the ages of some of the characters when they die. 

 - I noticed they made the Velaryons black, instead of looking just like the Targs. I wonder if this was to help the illiterati differentiate between the two houses on screen better. 

 - I didn't see Mushroom casted. Wonder if they left him out so people wouldn't think they were trying to do Tyrion 2.0. 

 

Anyways, I'm pumped. No D&D to shit all over it. A storyline that's been fully written out. What can go wrong? 

 

 

 

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27 minutes ago, huge said:

I never read this but saw it did not get good reviews.

Should I bother?  Also online it says the second half of this first volume is to be adapted into an upcoming HBO Game of Thrones prequel called House of the Dragon.

 

It's worth reading. I can see it getting poor reviews because it's written in a different style that most readers would find difficult.  It's basically a historical story so it doesn't have the details, internal dialog (or even external dialog),etc.   

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6 hours ago, huge said:

I never read this but saw it did not get good reviews.

Should I bother?  Also online it says the second half of this first volume is to be adapted into an upcoming HBO Game of Thrones prequel called House of the Dragon.

 

 

5 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

It's worth reading. I can see it getting poor reviews because it's written in a different style that most readers would find difficult.  It's basically a historical story so it doesn't have the details, internal dialog (or even external dialog),etc.   

Yeah it's very condensed but the 30 year section that this series will cover is much more detailed and a pretty good story.

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I'm reading this book now but I'll be back to this thread when I finish.

12 hours ago, NorthLoop said:

 

Yeah it's very condensed but the 30 year section that this series will cover is much more detailed and a pretty good story.

What is the show supposed to cover?  I'm on the long reign of Jaehaerys and Alyssane now so I probably haven't gotten there yet.  I'd've rather the show just started with the conquest and gone from there.  They could have time jumps and new casts as needed between seasons.

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8 minutes ago, WBT said:

I'm reading this book now but I'll be back to this thread when I finish.

What is the show supposed to cover?  I'm on the long reign of Jaehaerys and Alyssane now so I probably haven't gotten there yet.  I'd've rather the show just started with the conquest and gone from there.  They could have time jumps and new casts as needed between seasons.

I believe the show will start at the chapter right after The Long Reign (Heirs of the Dragon).. so you're right at the start of it. 


When I started reading the book I thought the same thing about the conquest, but after you finish the book you'll realize how much better the show will be starting where they are. 

Edited by NorthLoop
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  • 2 weeks later...

I finished the book last week and I agree that if they cover the entire Dance of the Dragons in three to five seasons or so it should be pretty good.  It needs to have Mushroom though.

I still think a show about the conquest would be good too.

 

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4 hours ago, WBT said:

I finished the book last week and I agree that if they cover the entire Dance of the Dragons in three to five seasons or so it should be pretty good.  It needs to have Mushroom though.

I still think a show about the conquest would be good too.

 

I'd love to watch numerous seasons set in Old Valyria.

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  • 1 month later...
26 minutes ago, Sawbonz said:

Is fire and blood a standalone book? I can’t tell from online but it looks like volume 1 of at least 2 and I don’t trust that fat fuck to finish it if that’s the case

There will be a volume 2.  Volume 1 covers up to Aegon III regency which ended at 136 AC.  For reference the main series was set around 297-300 AC

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Episode 2 tonight.  How quickly do we think they're going to move this along?  They've said there's going to be a time jump where they recast Rhaenyra and Alicent.  I wonder how long they're going to draw everything out.  My guess is that Viserys hangs around all season as we see him remarry and have kids with Alicent.  Then we have the court intrigue as the camps form around Rhaenyra and Alicent.  Making them friends in the premier before this all goes down was a good idea.  We could also show Daemon fighting in the Stepstones since they've already mentioned the Triacrchy.  Maybe Viserys dies in the season finale to set up the war really kicking off next season?

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5 hours ago, WBT said:

Episode 2 tonight.  How quickly do we think they're going to move this along?  They've said there's going to be a time jump where they recast Rhaenyra and Alicent.  I wonder how long they're going to draw everything out.  My guess is that Viserys hangs around all season as we see him remarry and have kids with Alicent.  Then we have the court intrigue as the camps form around Rhaenyra and Alicent.  Making them friends in the premier before this all goes down was a good idea.  We could also show Daemon fighting in the Stepstones since they've already mentioned the Triacrchy.  Maybe Viserys dies in the season finale to set up the war really kicking off next season?

I think you pretty much nailed it

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23 hours ago, WBT said:

Episode 2 tonight.  How quickly do we think they're going to move this along?  They've said there's going to be a time jump where they recast Rhaenyra and Alicent.  I wonder how long they're going to draw everything out.  My guess is that Viserys hangs around all season as we see him remarry and have kids with Alicent.  Then we have the court intrigue as the camps form around Rhaenyra and Alicent.  Making them friends in the premier before this all goes down was a good idea.  We could also show Daemon fighting in the Stepstones since they've already mentioned the Triacrchy.  Maybe Viserys dies in the season finale to set up the war really kicking off next season?

I'm hoping they don't take 3 seasons to tell this one Dance of Dragons story.  I mean honestly, they could do it in 1 season without rushing if they wanted to.  But a season and a half or 2 seasons is more than enough.  

Then they could move on to the next kings reign or do an anthology series and jump around...heck we might get Aegon's Conquest or Roberts Rebellion if they could do it right over multiple seasons.

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3 hours ago, Drew said:

I'm hoping they don't take 3 seasons to tell this one Dance of Dragons story.  I mean honestly, they could do it in 1 season without rushing if they wanted to.  But a season and a half or 2 seasons is more than enough.  

Then they could move on to the next kings reign or do an anthology series and jump around...heck we might get Aegon's Conquest or Roberts Rebellion if they could do it right over multiple seasons.

Dear God please no more prequels.  It's too difficult to make them really compelling.

Let's jump forward in time with new characters.

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Dear God please no more prequels.  It's too difficult to make them really compelling.
Let's jump forward in time with new characters.

The next series should bring back the remaining original cast in a new series that picks up instantly after Bran is named king.

First scene, in a monologue Tyrion explains that he was just biding his time to make his move. He cuts Bran’s throat and takes the crown. Second scene, assassins take out Arya and Sansa while they’re scissoring on a dire wolf rug.

Now the remaining series is Jon vs Tyrion. This show basically writes itself.
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22 minutes ago, NorthLoop said:

If I recall, young Rhaenyra liked to sneak off to Dragonstone to give Daemon blowies. Something tells me HBO is gonna cut that part out. 

According to Mushroom, she went to him to learn how to please Sir Ser Criston.  I like how the show is setting up Rhaenyra and Daemon to be opposed over the succession.  It will be a nice swerve when they come together to oppose Alicent's kid.

With the show making Corlys black, I wonder how they're going to handle the ambiguity around the paternity of Rhaenyra's kids.  It seems like the cat would be out of the bag fairly quick.

Edited by WBT
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/3/2022 at 8:53 PM, naija said:

show is boring so far.

 

I'm really surprised that my reaction to this show has been so different, because I'm usually thinking stuff like this while others are raving about a show.

I've found this show to be very interesting, sometimes fascinating, and I thought the most recent episode was fantastic.

 

Edited by Augustus
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Another aspect of this show that I'm enjoying is that, given GRRM's close involvement with the story, it's as if we're getting to see what really happened, relative to these often unreliable narrators whose often conflicting stories are recorded in Fire and Blood.

The Criston Cole deal being an example.  According the old Maester or Mushroom (or both, I can't recall) Criston rejected Rhaenyra's advances, I think.  But on the show, lo and behold, he slipped right out of that armor and into something more comfortable.

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I think the last two episodes have been better. The Greens and The Blacks could have been done better, and a better writing/producing team would have resisted the urge to state it out loud or point out Leanor's sexuality as explicitly as they did, given all what said. 

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4 hours ago, NorthLoop said:

Yeah they're playing to the stupid again. 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Joffrey die way later in the book? 

during that seven days of merriment and tourney that got cancelled

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12 minutes ago, NorthLoop said:

I'm thinking this series is going to be just all action, all the time, with no real character development. Kinda like the book I guess. I was hoping some decent writers could flesh out these characters more but so far they're doing a shitty job of it. 

They're Targaryens.   Maybe they are all vapid empty husks of human beings and there is nothing to flesh out.  They are rich, spoiled and entitled.  Outside of the dragons, the current generation of Targs kind of suck.  I doubt we're going to have any "OMG, they cut Eddard's head off!" moments in this series because none of them are all that likeable, honorable, or humorous at this stage.  We know from the books that damn near every single character in this series is going to die.  Unless we find someone to root for, and I don't believe I ever took sides while reading the book, this might be an entire series full of satisfying Little Finger and King Joffrey deaths and very little Eddard and Hodor deaths.  Is there one character we've met yet where their death would affect you emotionally?  I can think of a bunch from GOT.  I'm not even sure character development would help with these people.  These are mostly shitty people doing shitty things.  Fuck 'em.  Bring on the dragons and let's start killing them.   

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52 minutes ago, NorthLoop said:

I'm thinking this series is going to be just all action, all the time, with no real character development. Kinda like the book I guess. I was hoping some decent writers could flesh out these characters more but so far they're doing a shitty job of it. 

The complaint on the other thread is about the lack of action.

I this episode was the best of the lot. The quality of the two main actresses took a leap forward and that helped a ton

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1 hour ago, naija said:

The complaint on the other thread is about the lack of action.

I this episode was the best of the lot. The quality of the two main actresses took a leap forward and that helped a ton

I thought this as well, but wasn’t completely sure.

Are the new actresses that much better actresses or is the character’s maturity/storyline just more interesting? Maybe it’s both, but things are definitely better.

Early Sansa chapters were always boring to a certain degree, because she was a teen who thought about fairy tales.  I guess when watching the younger actresses, the acting itself didn’t necessarily stick out as a flaw to me.

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I'm an episode behind but just watched the wedding episode last night.  I was interested in how they would handle Cristan Cole switching sides and I thought it was kind of a mixed bag.  Him thinking Rhaenyra would drop everything and run away with him seemed pretty stupid.  I kind of liked his scenes with Alicent though.  I could see him being grateful to her for forgiveness and redemption through a 2nd chance to serve.  He seemed pretty torn up about breaking his vows.

Parts of the wedding brawl were a bit ridiculous.  The show seems to ignore the fact that there are 6 other members of the kingsguard but I don't think they would stand idly by as Rhaenyra were trampled by a mob.  I guess they had to start getting Breakbones involved with her somehow.

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2 hours ago, WBT said:

I'm an episode behind but just watched the wedding episode last night.  I was interested in how they would handle Cristan Cole switching sides and I thought it was kind of a mixed bag.  Him thinking Rhaenyra would drop everything and run away with him seemed pretty stupid.  I kind of liked his scenes with Alicent though.  I could see him being grateful to her for forgiveness and redemption through a 2nd chance to serve.  He seemed pretty torn up about breaking his vows.

Parts of the wedding brawl were a bit ridiculous.  The show seems to ignore the fact that there are 6 other members of the kingsguard but I don't think they would stand idly by as Rhaenyra were trampled by a mob.  I guess they had to start getting Breakbones involved with her somehow.

I don't think they'd stand idly by, either, but she could easily be hard to spot the moment a crowd rushes in like that.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Y’all - the shots in the preview of Luke running from Storm’s End and Arrax galloping towards him like a giant puppy and then them struggling to stay airborne…….

This finale is going to make me sob.

Especially if they show the compounding losses that get heaped on Rhaenerya - her dad, her son, her only unborn daughter all dead, one after another.

It’s gonna be bad.

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