Television House of the Dragon (GoT Prequel) - No book spoilers allowed

Himannv said:
I just feel like the recast actors and actresses have not really watched or considered what the previous actor for that character did or how they held themselves. Almost all of them portray the character a little bit differently from how the previous actor did and don't seem to have watched the scenes the previous person acted out. If they did they'd see that Aemond was a lot more whiny than badass, or Rhaeneyra (sp) was more hotheaded, confident, and stubborn and not quite as pacifying as she currently is. I think the more consistent ones are the actresses who played Alicent and Aegon (although in his case, the actor looks a bit too different in my view, especially when you contrast that with how Aemond looks). Too many years seem to fly by between episodes and that impacts how invested you are in the characters and their story arcs and you're missing a lot of info about what happened to them, etc. I feel it's not as good as it could have been and it'd have been excellent if they weren't in such a damn hurry.

The Rings of Power comparison is strange to me although I understand it since both shows are more or less running at the same time. Both shows have completely different problems and different aspects that make them great and I feel they're very different from each other. I'm a glass-half-full kind of person so I quite enjoy both shows on the whole, but I guess they're both not for everyone.
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I think the older actors were cast first and are really the 'main' actors for their characters, no idea what was shot first of course but it may be fair to say that the younger actors are the ones who perhaps did not consider the other portrayals of their characters.

Also, surely everyone can accept that people change as they grow older?
 
Paddy Considine has been incredible. Such a great actor, man.
 
Himannv said:
I just feel like the recast actors and actresses have not really watched or considered what the previous actor for that character did or how they held themselves. Almost all of them portray the character a little bit differently from how the previous actor did and don't seem to have watched the scenes the previous person acted out. If they did they'd see that Aemond was a lot more whiny than badass, or Rhaeneyra (sp) was more hotheaded, confident, and stubborn and not quite as pacifying as she currently is. I think the more consistent ones are the actresses who played Alicent and Aegon (although in his case, the actor looks a bit too different in my view, especially when you contrast that with how Aemond looks). Too many years seem to fly by between episodes and that impacts how invested you are in the characters and their story arcs and you're missing a lot of info about what happened to them, etc. I feel it's not as good as it could have been and it'd have been excellent if they weren't in such a damn hurry.
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That's kind of the point, though. They've grown up a lot. Aemond was a child when they ripped the piss out of him for not having a dragon, now he's a young adult with the biggest dragon in Westeros.

The timeskips had to happen to progress the plot; the main chunk of the show will be gravitated around everyone at the age(s) they're around now. Also, like @edcunited1878 says, there was no guarantee of how much time in terms of seasons the writers and directors would get to work on it.
 
Wasn't it a case that the actors were told not to look at what their counterpart would do?

I think the backstory to this point has been good. But the main thing is about the war right? So I don't suspect we will get too many jumps now. This season has felt like an introduction to the characters, a somewhat brief into their history before getting to the main points now
 
Only thing that is starting to irk me ever so slightly is that basically all characters on the show are either miserable or cnuts. Yes, we like our fiction in shades of grey now rather than black and white, good versus evil, but can we have at least one actually good main character on the show that isn't completely miserable and downtrodden?
 
JuveGER said:
It does not have the high end quality that GOT had at the beginning nor the scope or depth.
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One thing to remember is that GOT had the scope and depth already there — 5 books worth. HOTD has about 300~ pages in a book that is written as a historical overview of the Targaryen dynasty, so there’s no POV chapters into characters etc.
 
edcunited1878 said:
Why would a person who has aged and experienced things as they did as part of a noble family, do and act as they were 12 to 15+ years ago? What person do you know acts similarly from around 11 to their early 20s?

This show isn't guaranteed a 2nd season and there isn't enough written or developed references (i.e. book source) to have every main character be deeply examined and slowly develop an arc when compared to GoT seasons 1 through 4.

People have to put a little more thought and empathy into these characters and try to remember this is about a destructive family civil war that ultimately had their last 2 living bloodlines in Pentos 200 years later and the actual Aegon be a labeled a bastard son of Lord Ned Stark with possibly 1 person (Lord Stark) even remotely aware and smart enough of who Jon Snow actually was.
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Season 2 was confirmed after the premiere numbers came out.

I agree with you about the kids growing up. And over-analyzing them is about as fun as doing that with the volcano in Rings of Power.
 
Himannv said:
I just feel like the recast actors and actresses have not really watched or considered what the previous actor for that character did or how they held themselves. Almost all of them portray the character a little bit differently from how the previous actor did and don't seem to have watched the scenes the previous person acted out. If they did they'd see that Aemond was a lot more whiny than badass, or Rhaeneyra (sp) was more hotheaded, confident, and stubborn and not quite as pacifying as she currently is. I think the more consistent ones are the actresses who played Alicent and Aegon (although in his case, the actor looks a bit too different in my view, especially when you contrast that with how Aemond looks). Too many years seem to fly by between episodes and that impacts how invested you are in the characters and their story arcs and you're missing a lot of info about what happened to them, etc. I feel it's not as good as it could have been and it'd have been excellent if they weren't in such a damn hurry.

The Rings of Power comparison is strange to me although I understand it since both shows are more or less running at the same time. Both shows have completely different problems and different aspects that make them great and I feel they're very different from each other. I'm a glass-half-full kind of person so I quite enjoy both shows on the whole, but I guess they're both not for everyone.
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The actors not considering their counterpart's choices was deliberately done by the showrunners. Because people are different as they age.
 
roseguy64 said:
The actors not considering their counterpart's choices was deliberately done by the showrunners. Because people are different as they age.
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I remember reading they did not want them to see any of the filming of the younger actresses so they would not pick up on their mannerisms or dialect. They wanted the older girls to develop their own characters.
 
KirkDuyt said:
Only thing that is starting to irk me ever so slightly is that basically all characters on the show are either miserable or cnuts. Yes, we like our fiction in shades of grey now rather than black and white, good versus evil, but can we have at least one actually good main character on the show that isn't completely miserable and downtrodden?
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I think Daemon has that level of complexity with shades of grey. Unsure about the others.
 
roseguy64 said:
The actors not considering their counterpart's choices was deliberately done by the showrunners. Because people are different as they age.
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Yep. If you're going to have that time jump and change of actors then it makes more sense to me to actually embrace it as a device that highlights the way those characters' personalities have shifted over time, as opposed to trying to work against the series structure you've opted for by getting the actors to try and deliver as similar a performance as possible.
 
Why is Eye Patch suddenly the same age as Dr Who? Why is everyone called Aegon? :lol:

Good episode though. This is far better than that LOTR snooze fest.
 
CassiusClaymore said:
Why is Eye Patch suddenly the same age as Dr Who? Why is everyone called Aegon? :lol:

Good episode though. This is far better than that LOTR snooze fest.
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Daemon doesn't appear to age really :lol: looks just about the same as when rhaneyra was a kid.


It's like they've got a book of names, and it contains a list of 8 names and everyone has to use one of those 8. Annoying as hell. The time jumps make it way worse too. Bastards.
 
One Night Only said:
Daemon doesn't appear to age really :lol: looks just about the same as when rhaneyra was a kid.


It's like they've got a book of names, and it contains a list of 8 names and everyone has to use one of those 8. Annoying as hell. The time jumps make it way worse too. Bastards.
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I mean yeah I get it that Royalty tends to have a pool of names that they stick to (in the real world Henry, George, William etc...) but it makes it pretty annoying to follow at times, especially like you say, when some of the actors have changed several times this season already. There's even a Joffrey!

What did the King say at the end to the Queen by the way? I couldn't make it out but it sounded important.
 
CassiusClaymore said:
I mean yeah I get it that Royalty tends to have a pool of names that they stick to (in the real world Henry, George, William etc...) but it makes it pretty annoying to follow at times, especially like you say, when some of the actors have changed several times this season already. There's even a Joffrey!

What did the King say at the end to the Queen by the way? I couldn't make it out but it sounded important.
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Yeah I missed that too.
 
CassiusClaymore said:
What did the King say at the end to the Queen by the way? I couldn't make it out but it sounded important.
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One Night Only said:
Yeah I missed that too.
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The King, on his death bed, thought he was talking to his daughter, Rhaenyra about the prophecy that he told her about all the way back in episode 1. A Song of Ice and Fire, a dream that Aegon the Conqueror had about The Prince That Was Promised.

However, as The King was drugged up on Milk of the Poppy so firstly, he mixed up Alicent with Rhaenyra. Secondly he mixed words up like “heir”, “unite” and “Aegon”. Alicent thought he was taking about their dirty, drunk of a son! But he was talking about the legendary Aegon the Conqueror. So she now potentially thinks Viserys wants the current Prince Aegon on the throne.
 
Who's Kissing Cameras? said:
The King, on his death bed, thought he was talking to his daughter, Rhaenyra about the prophecy that he told her about all the way back in episode 1. A Song of Ice and Fire, a dream that Aegon the Conqueror had about The Prince That Was Promised.

However, as The King was drugged up on Milk of the Poppy so firstly, he mixed up Alicent with Rhaenyra. Secondly he mixed words up like “heir”, “unite” and “Aegon”. Alicent thought he was taking about their dirty, drunk of a son! But he was talking about the legendary Aegon the Conqueror. So she now potentially thinks Viserys wants the current Prince Aegon on the throne.
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Thanks.
 
Who's Kissing Cameras? said:
The King, on his death bed, thought he was talking to his daughter, Rhaenyra about the prophecy that he told her about all the way back in episode 1. A Song of Ice and Fire, a dream that Aegon the Conqueror had about The Prince That Was Promised.

However, as The King was drugged up on Milk of the Poppy so firstly, he mixed up Alicent with Rhaenyra. Secondly he mixed words up like “heir”, “unite” and “Aegon”. Alicent thought he was taking about their dirty, drunk of a son! But he was talking about the legendary Aegon the Conqueror. So she now potentially thinks Viserys wants the current Prince Aegon on the throne.
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Ah ok. Cheers. Very important then.
 
We should cut them some slack for actor swapping. For a story that's gonna focus on the future swapping now would make much more sense than later.

The guy who plays Aemond (who lost his eye) may look too broodish now but he'll look perfectly fine the next 30-40 years.
 
Viserys outlasted quite a few characters in the timeline considering people were shocked he was still alive a few episodes ago for how sickly he was.
 
They should show that Cristin Cole is a witch given he seems to look age really well each time jump
 
Daemon is still a bit comic book-ish (the beheading and tongue line) but he's much improved as the episodes have gone by.

Considine obviously stole the show but Smith's sadness at seeing him in bed, the throne scene and the pained look at the dinner table were much more interesting than "cool" Daemon.
 
I wish they found a way to make Daemon look older as he looks pretty much the same since the show began when his brother has withered away the way he has and other characters have been changed out to reflect the time progression. One would think he is an ageless elf who crossed over from the RoP universe.
 
"He looks like a different person" hey!

The best thing about this show is the timespace relativity. I'm always excited to see how each character has been affected by the waves of time crashing against their visage. Because some age like a grape in the sun and others exist in permanent stasis.

No surprise then that Viserys has been consistently the best thing in the show given he is the only one who is developing consistent with the flow of entropy. The wafer thin plotting, scattered aimlessly over decades, feels entirely irrelevant. Yet as a one man show, depicting the crippling blight of time on the mind and body, The King's decline has been quite the spectacle.

Eyepatch is fun, such a little twat but he cuts through the pompous drivel the other characters churn out. It's so very disjointed. Sometimes it's Eastenders, sometimes it's Phantom Menace, but on the occasions that it's good it's Dogtanian. The rowdy brats are fun.

Daemon is a shit character. He's a dreary, generic badass, devoid of any depth or grounding. A complete edgelord's wet dream that you always know will probably do something tediously "outrageous" whenever he appears. Push a horse on his wife, kill an invincible crabman, decapitate a guy in the thrown room, with a smirk or in a hood, or in moody silence. If Guy Richie wrote medieval fantasy.

It is drivel but if you wait a bit then usually a good bit of acting or exciting set piece will pop up.
 
Oh I stole it but it's so apt. You know Babs would have been in her element in the many shouty scenes. And she definitely would have elevated the acting average.
 
Sylar said:
They should show that Cristin Cole is a witch given he seems to look age really well each time jump
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Bizarre they didn’t time jump him too. As in have a teen character in the early episodes. Maybe because he wasn’t that big of a character it would bring in more confusion. I genuinely thought after the big time jump Strong was Cole at first.
 
Shane88 said:
Daemon is still a bit comic book-ish (the beheading and tongue line) but he's much improved as the episodes have gone by.

Considine obviously stole the show but Smith's sadness at seeing him in bed, the throne scene and the pained look at the dinner table were much more interesting than "cool" Daemon.
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I think those scenes were even more powerful because of how Daemon has been portrayed. Even at his wife's funeral there was not really any compassion shown but in this episode multiple times you could feel that he actually either loved his brother or felt sorry for him.
 
rollingstoned1 said:
I wish they found a way to make Daemon look older as he looks pretty much the same since the show began when his brother has withered away the way he has and other characters have been changed out to reflect the time progression. One would think he is an ageless elf who crossed over from the RoP universe.
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Perhaps he has, but can you blame him?
 
Now that we're a few episodes past the actors change for the main characters, it seems like a good decision.

Partly because they've covered too big a time period to do otherwise. It would have been silly to try and have Alcock and Carey play both 17 year olds and characters old enough to have near-adult children. And that's just the timespan covered by episode 8, let alone wherever the season actually ends.

But also because the actual characters undergo fundamental personality shifts over that time jump. Raenarys going from rebellious kid with little interest in marriage/motherhood to a mother of three who desperately needs to protect her children. And Alicent going from a naive kid to the rather ruthless de facto ruler of the kingdom. The actor change works as a dramatic device in that regard. They quite literally are different people after the big time jump than they were in the first episodes.
 
sullydnl said:
Now that we're a few episodes past the actors change for the main characters, it seems like a good decision.

Partly because they've covered too big a time period to do otherwise. It would have been silly to try and have Alcock and Carey play both 17 year olds and characters old enough to have near-adult children. And that's just the timespan covered by episode 8, let alone wherever the season actually ends.

But also because the actual characters undergo fundamental personality shifts over that time jump. Raenarys going from rebellious kid with little interest in marriage/motherhood to a mother of three who desperately needs to protect her children. And Alicent going from a naive kid to the rather ruthless de facto ruler of the kingdom. The actor change works as a dramatic device in that regard. They quite literally are different people after the big time jump than they were in the first episodes.
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Yeah I doubt anybody really cares/notices anymore.

Both the young girls did a great job, and understandably when you make a big impact like that early, people think wtf?. I didn't even know they were going to do the time jump so it was a bit of a surprise.

I don't think the older women are doing a bad job at all, I really like the queen now especially.
 
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