The Dragon Demands

....nothing in House of the Dragon really merited a dedicated "Rant or Rave Thread Because We're So Angry About How This Went Off The Rails but We Can't Let Yelling Dominate the Entire Forum" ---- I mean there's highs and lows but overall it's been a very well received adaptation by most if not all of us. There's always a point or two to disagree with, as with anything, but nothing I need to...."veny my frustration" about to maintain my basic sanity in a world gone mad. No real need for that again.

She can CHANGE him! All he needs is her love to break through his tough exterior!

Oh yeah that was an official change. Which I disagree with. They said they wanted to contrast a "Warm" King's Landing with a colder Winterfell. Because apparently it's just those two extremes with no Temperate zone in between. SMH...

I'm sarcastically setting up dialogue from a Simpsons joke. I couldn't find a clip but here it is in text: Bart: [about Jimbo Jones] What do you like about him? He's just a good-looking rebel who plays by his own rules. Lisa and Laura: [sigh wistfully] https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/New_Kid_on_the_Block/Quotes I left out the "Good looking" part because that would have made the sarcasm too obvious. And m'lord, to quote Oscar Wilde, it would be hard to find someone who was not Lord Byron's lover at the time...

I think Emily Carey mentioned rumblings about a cameo or something.

How can they love the man?! He's nothing but a brooding rebel who plays by his own rules!

@Ran I've been seeing some rumors lately...from sources who were reliable in the past and turned out to be correct on Season 1. These rumors were made DURING Season 1 so they may have CHANGED since then, of course. But I think they were at least being considered at the time: Rumor is that while Season 2 doesn't have time skips, it will have flashbacks. We'd already heard rumblings on that. Well there's some rumors that Michael Carter will return for flashbacks as King Jaehaerys. Or if not him, someone else to play Jaehaerys a decade or so younger. But the...extrapolation is that GRRM really wanted to show how Baelon got picked over Aemon's daughter Rhaenys, so Season 2 may have flashbacks actually showing Baelon, Aemon etc. - or at the least, have Jaehaerys return and reacting to their deaths. Perhaps even seeing him give Dark Sister to Daemon. Possibly an excuse to bring Paddy Considine back as Viserys for scenes with Jaehaerys, I'm not sure. But there was already speculation based on actor statements that young Rhaenyra and young Alicent might return for flashbacks. Heck, Game of Thrones Season 2 brought back Khal Drogo for a dream sequence just for fun, but flashbacks here would actually fill out the story more. Heck, maybe they'd actually show Queen Alysanne in flashbacks just to explain who the former rider of Silverwing was when that dragon is introduced. At any rate I trust the source, they were right before, but this is something they picked up *during the filming of Season 1*, and this plan may have been abandoned for all we know.

How do we know that Sapochnik "wanted to appeal to the general audience"? I'm not disputing that, I'm asking you to explain - I'm not certain what instances you're referring to.

Checked online, both Javi from Spanish fansite Los Seite Reinos and major French language YouTube channel Mestre Thibaut still consider this a fake rumor, and think Variety just mentioned it by accident or something: See thread here. We don't know. .

For those interested in such things, this is the 40 minute guide I put together on "everything we know about the three draagon breeds, six months since we first found out about them": I just cobbled it together from what we've been able to find scattered about. Has a few interesting things the designer told me in Instagram comments, and some concept art he posted there too. This is all of course "provisional".

I'm confused...the Variety article mentions that Casey Bloys had to "mediate" between Condal and Sapochnik... "Falling out"? Some weeks ago an unsubstantiated rumor spread that Sapochnik got into a fight with HBO over giving his wife more money (she's part of his production company and credited as a producer). NO ONE was willing to report on this because it had no evidence - Los Seite Reinos, even the hype fansites, all said it seemed like a misogynistic dig at his wife, and it contradicted other things (Sapochnik was hesitant to even come back for one season due to the heavy workload, so they gave him the proverbial dump trunk of money and co-showrunner credit). All agreed it wasn't worth dignifying the rumor by reporting on it. Does Variety actually know about something behind the scenes? Or is Variety repeating that rumor?....I don't think they'd just repeat it, but this is strange. ....should...should we re-assess that rumor? Or was there indeed a falling out, but due to something else? I really don't want to breath life into a false rumor. We need confirmation. @Ran

I'm often concerned that they'll condense Rhaena with someone else, to cut out Nettles or something. I wouldn't object to her new egg Morning hatching early in Season 2, BEFORE she goes to the Vale with this cat-sized dragon, I mean a big condensation. ****A thought which occurred to me is that Season 1 was written under the fear that it wouldn't be a hit, that they wouldn't get all the seasons they wanted. Not unlike early Game of Thrones. And LIKE early Game of Thrones, they might've...HALF set up optional paths to truncate certain storylines, but they didn't want to. You know, like how they carefully worded "Stannis has no sons", to self-consciously leave open the door to say he has a daughter. So while part of me suspects they half set up the option to combine Rhaena with Nettles (camera lingers on her when describing the wild ones)....maybe that was just a "worst case scenario" in case Season 1 wasn't a hit. I mean, they also avoided definitively saying how many children Alicent has in total, to leave open the door for Daeron. Plans change, after all.

https://redanianintelligence.com/2023/02/14/watch-1899-star-audition-for-a-major-role-in-house-of-the-dragon-season-2/

(shrug) I thought they'd assuredly cut Grey Ghost, only to then confirm that there are "three wild dragons". We'll see what happens.

Thus POTENTIAL types of dragons we'd realistically see, working backwards from Function: Strength Combat (Destriers) = T-Rex Shaped heads (confirmed) (Strength, with enough speed to fight) Pure Strength (Drays) = we'd only see these in Valyria construction projects Speed & Endurance (Dornish Sand Steeds) = Horse-Shaped heads ("bred for speed") Pure Endurance (Palfrey) = ??? (I always thought Dreamfyre was one of these) Pure Speed (Race Horses) = we'd only see these in Valyria Trackers (Hunting Dogs) = ...the Wolf-Shaped skull head dragons? Wide-set heads for better Sensory scanning, with decent Endurance, better than Destrier-dragons. But maybe they don't draw a distinction between "Pure Endurance" (like a Palfrey) with "Speed & Endurance" (like a Sand Steed). The functional labels I'd use for these 3 categories are "War Dragons", "Travel Dragons", and "Tracker Dragons".