That was Rhaegar?

[LucyMormont]

5 hours ago, Cron said:

Good stuff.

I'm glad to hear that it seems to be accurate.  Even though I was surprised myself last night to see how much he looked like Viserys, I much prefer it when the show follows the books as closely as reasonably possible, and if the books say they looked so similar that Dany at first thought he was Viserys, then I'm glad that's what the show did, too.

It appears they took great care in following Rhaegar's description as it's written in Dany's vision in the House of the Undying. Due to the angle of the shot we don't get to see his eyes, but they gave him the hair and also had a taller actor to portray him. 

Quote

"Viserys, was her first thought the next time she paused, but a second glance told her otherwise. The man had her brother’s hair, but he was taller, and his eyes were a dark indigo rather than lilac.

So I'm fine with it, I only wish we would have had a bit longer scene with some stuff to help differenciate Rhaegar from Viserys. For casual viewers it might have been confusing, the guy really looked Viserys 2.

 

[Cron]

7 minutes ago, LucyMormont said:

It appears they took great care in following Rhaegar's description as it's written in Dany's vision in the House of the Undying. Due to the angle of the shot we don't get to see his eyes, but they gave him the hair and also had a taller actor to portray him. 

So I'm fine with it, I only wish we would have had a bit longer scene with some stuff to help differenciate Rhaegar from Viserys. For casual viewers it might have been confusing, the guy really looked Viserys 2.

 

Hey, thanks for pulling up the exact quote, I really enjoyed reading that!

And thus, the "mystery" of why Rhaegar looked like Viserys last night is....solved.

[Daemon the Leaner]

They should have given him almost the same hairstyle than Jon has since he came back to life. The connection would have been even more easier and show-Rhaegar would have looked a bit like this fanart :

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/images/thumb/2/22/Rhaegar_twoiaf.jpg/320px-Rhaegar_twoiaf.jpg

[SwordOfWinterfell]

I find it hard to believe that D&D (who have glossed over, rewritten, erased, and manipulated countless characters, plot lines, and story arcs from the books) would take special care in matching EXACTLY how the books describe Rhaegar from Dany's vision.

She didn't even see or mention Rhaegar on the show (if I remember correctly), it was all about her unborn child and Drogo. So why make him look like Viserys 2.0?  You mean to tell me there were no long platinum blonde wigs hanging around? It was sheer laziness if you ask me. 

I'm not saying I expected a male supermodel, but I expected someone that would differentiate themselves a little more from other Targs, and someone whom I could imagine fighting Robert Baratheon on the Trident. 

Personally, when I envisioned Rhaegar while reading the books, I always thought of Alucard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night's artwork.

http://www.game-art-hq.com/wp-content/uploads/Alucard-Castlevanoa-SOTN-Portrait-Art.jpg

[Erudain]

So I guess the Rhaegar illustration in TWoIaF book is not canon?....that Rhaegar pic looked nothing like Viserys (or last night TV Rhaegar)

[starklover]

it makes since that rhaegar will look like visery.  i pictured him more like chris hemsworth. 

[falcotron]

41 minutes ago, Erudain said:

So I guess the Rhaegar illustration in TWoIaF book is not canon?....that Rhaegar pic looked nothing like Viserys (or last night TV Rhaegar)

Sure it is, but book!Rhaegar looks like book!VIserys; show!Rhaegar looks like show!Viserys. Since book!Viserys doesn't look like show!Viserys, there's no reason to think book!Rhaegar should look like show!Viserys.

It would be like complaining that show!Meera doesn't look like book!Howland, when show!Meera already looks nothing like the girl with straight, reddish-brown hair and bright green eyes described in the books. Not to mention Joffrey's curly, almost feminine locks, or the long and narrow faces of Ned and Arya, or…

[purple-eyes]

Rhaegar does look like Viserys as far as we know. They are also brothers, so it is not hard to believe they look like each other.  

I am totally ok even if they use Harry Lloyd for Rhaegar.   

But I would not agree that this Rhaegar is the most beautiful man ever (Cersei's opinion) and can make Jaime no more than a callow boy. 

[Robert Baratheon's hammer]

Wasn't Rhaegar meant to be very handsome? Ladies what are your thoughts?

[Booknerd2]

That must have been some singing and harp-playing...

It was the shock that he appeared to look so much like Viserys that got me. Not what I ever envisioned nor expected. The power of the book series and imagination in my head. Hard to see his face while in profile and the same hair and clothes just took me aback. I think I just didn't expect it and I had a what the moment. Not the actor's fault. Recalling Viserys' whining and tantrums totally killed the effect for me. 

It was the same feel of the messed up hair and clothes the bedraggled Viserys rocked on his travels on the run with Deanerys. That's probably what did it. Or I expected a little black and red...then it occurred to me that if Rhaegar did that, well, that would be very dumb considering the situation they were in.

Now that the shock has subsided though, I thought that hey, it was a fast wedding, secretive, and on the run so how he looked would reflect that.

Until, I remembered that Lyanna dressed for the occasion, and her dress was not what I would envision either. Style wise. But it looks expensive too. I'm guessing it was borrowed or gifted. Doubt she ransacked her Winterfell closet before jetting and doubt she'd have something similar there to begin with anyway.

Not a big deal for me. This isn't the books.

 

[of man and wolf]

So now non book readers should realize how much of a piece of shit Rhaegar truly is. He abandons his sick wife Elia Martell and runs away with Lyanna. They tell nobody, everyone else rightfully thinks she was kidnapped. Her farther Rickard and older brother Brandon go to Kings Landing to confront them and they get burned alive, starting the rebellion. Did Lyanna care that her dad and bro were tortured? Robert is pissed, Ned is pissed, they go to war on this lie and many lives get altered for the worse...Ned finds out Lyanna's secret and he STILL keeps a promise to her even though he didnt have to, and it affected his life forever afterwards, regarding Catelyn etc...Rhaegar didnt even leave his best Kingsgaurd with Elia...so she gets raped and murdered only after she has to watch her children murdered...and then she gets raped with the brain matter of her baby still on the Mountains hands...Rhaegar doesnt care though. ALL targs are messed up. The last TRUE king in the North was Robb. I cannot support a Targ.

[Mikkel]

I thought it worked well enough, and yes for a second I was like "Is that Harry Lloyd again?!" (because let's face it he provided some of the best acting on this show in the short time he was on it). Viserys and Rhaegar are supposed to look alike, Viserys' faults were never physical it was all character and mental-breakdown style flaws for that guy.

[UnViserion]

1 hour ago, of man and wolf said:

So now non book readers should realize how much of a piece of shit Rhaegar truly is. He abandons his sick wife Elia Martell and runs away with Lyanna. They tell nobody, everyone else rightfully thinks she was kidnapped. Her farther Rickard and older brother Brandon go to Kings Landing to confront them and they get burned alive, starting the rebellion. Did Lyanna care that her dad and bro were tortured? Robert is pissed, Ned is pissed, they go to war on this lie and many lives get altered for the worse...Ned finds out Lyanna's secret and he STILL keeps a promise to her even though he didnt have to, and it affected his life forever afterwards, regarding Catelyn etc...Rhaegar didnt even leave his best Kingsgaurd with Elia...so she gets raped and murdered only after she has to watch her children murdered...and then she gets raped with the brain matter of her baby still on the Mountains hands...Rhaegar doesnt care though. ALL targs are messed up. The last TRUE king in the North was Robb. I cannot support a Targ.

Lol

Posting the same rant in two different threads  

[falcotron]

1 hour ago, ImNoSer said:

i know right?

Well, to be fairer to the whiners than they deserve, when we're told that two characters look similar, it's rarely true. Jon and Arya don't look that alike, Jojen doesn't look like a scrawnier version of Meera, etc. (In fact, Planetos DNA, while it does of course determine hair color absolutely and with no variation, seems to have very little effect on looks beyond that.) So, it's a little surprising that we were told Viserys looks a lot like Rhaegar and when we finally see Rhaegar it turns out to be true.

[Chrizelda]

16 hours ago, ummester said:

Looked the Wilf Scolding up in google images, he's definitely less dweeby looking than Harry Lloyd - must have just been a bad angle.

I agree and I know that from the books Rhaegar was said to look very much like Viserys. I think it might even be intentional in the show that he was built up to be this ethereal broody Prince charming and the real deal proves to be anticlimactic like what we expect when we meet celebrities in real life. However I very much expected him to have better hair,  longer and prettier like Dany's but in a more masculine style. I just wish they presented him in a way that acknowledges yes he look like Viserys, that gene pool was very small, but more attractive. 

After having seen Wilf Scolding yes he's taller and I think bigger than Harry Lloyd. I just wish they made him sing. Though the actor probably doesn't. Oh well...

[Chrizelda]

17 hours ago, Ser Meryn Frey said:

He wasn't even nearly beautiful enough, and not tall enough either, but that's less important.

Viserys looked better; more lithe, slender, kingly even.

He's 6'4 so definitly taller than Harry Lloyd. 

[Anarres]

I thought it was fine. The fact that he reminded me of his brother was actually a nice touch. The show tends to be sloppy with this (look no further than Arya and Sansa) but it worked out really well here.

Also, men not looking their most warrior-like masculine self at a wedding? Who'd have guessed!

[Chrizelda]

16 hours ago, Cron said:

I'm not positive if this is accurate or not, cuz I haven't checked the quote from the books, but someone posted a comment saying that in the books, when Dany first saw Rhaegar in a vision in the House of the Undying, she at first mistook him for Viserys.

If so, then apparently they DID look very similar, and if so then what they did on the show made a lot of sense, and would be consistent with book canon.

But like I said, I haven't checked or seen the actual quote from the book.

You are absolutely right but I still can't help but be disappointed. Which, I think was somewhat the show's goal because we built this character up from hearsay only.

[Chrizelda]

9 hours ago, SwordOfWinterfell said:

I find it hard to believe that D&D (who have glossed over, rewritten, erased, and manipulated countless characters, plot lines, and story arcs from the books) would take special care in matching EXACTLY how the books describe Rhaegar from Dany's vision.

She didn't even see or mention Rhaegar on the show (if I remember correctly), it was all about her unborn child and Drogo. So why make him look like Viserys 2.0?  You mean to tell me there were no long platinum blonde wigs hanging around? It was sheer laziness if you ask me. 

I'm not saying I expected a male supermodel, but I expected someone that would differentiate themselves a little more from other Targs, and someone whom I could imagine fighting Robert Baratheon on the Trident. 

Personally, when I envisioned Rhaegar while reading the books, I always thought of Alucard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night's artwork.

http://www.game-art-hq.com/wp-content/uploads/Alucard-Castlevanoa-SOTN-Portrait-Art.jpg

I think not having the long flowing hair had something to do with show Daario version1.0. He had long flowing fair hair and Ed Skrein might look like Wilf Scolding in some angles.

[Chrizelda]

8 hours ago, Booknerd2 said:

That must have been some singing and harp-playing...

It was the shock that he appeared to look so much like Viserys that got me. Not what I ever envisioned nor expected. The power of the book series and imagination in my head. Hard to see his face while in profile and the same hair and clothes just took me aback. I think I just didn't expect it and I had a what the moment. Not the actor's fault. Recalling Viserys' whining and tantrums totally killed the effect for me. 

It was the same feel of the messed up hair and clothes the bedraggled Viserys rocked on his travels on the run with Deanerys. That's probably what did it. Or I expected a little black and red...then it occurred to me that if Rhaegar did that, well, that would be very dumb considering the situation they were in.

Now that the shock has subsided though, I thought that hey, it was a fast wedding, secretive, and on the run so how he looked would reflect that.

Until, I remembered that Lyanna dressed for the occasion, and her dress was not what I would envision either. Style wise. But it looks expensive too. I'm guessing it was borrowed or gifted. Doubt she ransacked her Winterfell closet before jetting and doubt she'd have something similar there to begin with anyway.

Not a big deal for me. This isn't the books.

 

Pretty pretty please let us see some singing and harp playing from Rhaegar. The song could even double duty as exposition or prophecy,