More Dragon Casting Announced

[Sotan]

7 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

But in the end - what's definitely the case is that Princess Rhaenys better get something important to do if she is a main character in season 1. The same with Mysaria. She wouldn't be a main character if she wouldn't play a much bigger role in the show than she does in the book.

They have 10 hours to fill, I hope they give each character their due. This is a huge assumption, but I think the announced cast so far sound like the core cast and will get the most screen time. 

[Lord Varys]

9 hours ago, Sotan said:

OMG YES! I hope they utilizes Rhaenys and that she is a major player in the story. Eve Best has been amazing the few times I've seen her on screen and like Rhaenys she has that BDE. 

I have to disagree that they will kill Corlys early on; if they are considering a Corlys based prequel he must be a major player in HOTD and for whatever reason is compelling enough on the page to create a show around him.  

Oh, I don't think they have to or will kill Corlys early, I just tossed around the idea that they could change things so that Rhaenys is the one who does a lot of the stuff Corlys later does - creating the peace, etc.

And it is not that Rhaenys dies that early, depending how many episodes there are before the war starts ... the problem just is, that Rhaenys doesn't do anything in the story until she gives her dragon speech. And then she just dies at Rook's Rest.

If that were more or less her role in the show then she should just be a featured extra or guest star for, say, a couple of episodes, not a main character.

[Sotan]

1 hour ago, Lord Varys said:

Oh, I don't think they have to or will kill Corlys early, I just tossed around the idea that they could change things so that Rhaenys is the one who does a lot of the stuff Corlys later does - creating the peace, etc.

And it is not that Rhaenys dies that early, depending how many episodes there are before the war starts ... the problem just is, that Rhaenys doesn't do anything in the story until she gives her dragon speech. And then she just dies at Rook's Rest.

If that were more or less her role in the show then she should just be a featured extra or guest star for, say, a couple of episodes, not a main character.

Oh I agree the story fails to utilize her. I've finally started doing my re-read of F&B, and I forgot how much of an overview it is; if the Dance was an actual novel, it could be a trilogy. I can see why the writers gravitated toward this story, besides dragons and HBO branding, this is a bare bones story with a beginning, middle and end, a talented writer can fill in the huge gaps and let the story breathe. It would be such a shame to not expand on Rhaenys considering the opportunity before them. 

[Jaenara Belarys]

12 hours ago, Sotan said:

I have to disagree that they will kill Corlys early on; if they are considering a Corlys based prequel he must be a major player in HOTD and for whatever reason is compelling enough on the page to create a show around him.  

Corlys was in his 70s during the Dance. Thus, keeping him alive is completely unnecessary for his show.

 

3 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

And then she just dies at Rook's Rest.

Good ser, she doesn't "just die". She injures Sunfyre and Aegon, thus playing a large part in the Dance. If Aegon and Sunfyre weren't injured, Sunfyre could've helped defend KL (badly, but still), could've helped at Tumbleton, fought at the Butcher's Ball or the Fishfeed.

[Sotan]

25 minutes ago, Jaenara Belarys said:

Corlys was in his 70s during the Dance. Thus, keeping him alive is completely unnecessary for his show.

 

Except they hired a much younger actor, I think Toussaint is in his early 50s. Not to mention all media reports about the casting state Coryls is one of the 5 leads of the show. He isn't going anywhere. 

[Jaenara Belarys]

You can make a younger actor look old. And it doesn't matter, if he's 50, he's probably already done his 9 voyages.

[Sotan]

9 minutes ago, Jaenara Belarys said:

You can make a younger actor look old. And it doesn't matter, if he's 50, he's probably already done his 9 voyages.

I'm not seeing your point. 

[Jaenara Belarys]

Explain why you can't see my point.

[Lord Varys]

4 hours ago, Jaenara Belarys said:

Good ser, she doesn't "just die". She injures Sunfyre and Aegon, thus playing a large part in the Dance. If Aegon and Sunfyre weren't injured, Sunfyre could've helped defend KL (badly, but still), could've helped at Tumbleton, fought at the Butcher's Ball or the Fishfeed.

That's something that could be accomplished without her dying or without her even being there.

[Jaenara Belarys]

How could that have been accomplished by not going there? Maybe if Rhaenyra sent somebody else, but from what we know of Rhaenys' character (bold, etc) she might've told everybody she's going.

[The Bard of Banefort]

On 3/16/2021 at 5:03 PM, Jaenara Belarys said:

Nothing bad really happened to Baela. Sure she got chained and stuff, but so did Prince Aegon the Younger.

She was also burned in her fight with Aegon II. After that, she nearly got beheaded a few times.

[The Bard of Banefort]

On 3/16/2021 at 2:54 PM, The Dragon Demands said:

I am disgusted by the euphemisms the media uses to dance around the real question:  why did Benioff and Weiss throw out Sansa’s book storyline and throw her into an unrelated rape storyline?

They never attempted an explanation, in fact they just avoided interviews for a full year and skipped Comic-Con.

Even then, no one was willing to admit the emperor was naked:  meekly asked in euphemisms about “violence against women”....and not “dude, why did you invent a rape for Sansa, detailing her entire story arc?”

If I remember correctly, they said that they loved Theon's ADWD plot, so they combined it with Sansa's for adaptational purposes. I'm personally of the mind that Sansa's book plot will eventually bring her to fAegon, and that would help explain this decision, since they cut Aegon and put Cersei on the throne instead. Of course, I think most of us would agree that cutting Aegon was a huge mistake, especially considering how it affected Daenerys' story.

On 3/16/2021 at 2:54 PM, The Dragon Demands said:

Of course, I think the “elephant in the room” they’ll be confronted with first are all the things from Season 8.  EVERY TIME we try to poll lists of “most asked questions about House of the Dragon” - on YouTube, screen rant, Reddit - the vast majority just keep submitting questions about Season 8!”  I try to steer such open Q&A towards things like “how will they handle time skips?”, but it just gets drowned out with “why should we care after how bad Game of Thrones ended?”—-journalistic standards really declined.  Not just fan questions but even op Ed’s on screen rant listing “top questions about House of the Dragon” were just about Game of Thrones.

This is the main reason why I think planning a dozen different prequels is a bad idea. Even when spin-offs are critically successful, they're never as popular as the original, and these shows are expensive as hell. The backlash to season 8 was so huge that I imagine a pretty sizeable portion of GOT's fanbase isn't going to watch HOTD. (I also hadn't realized, until you mentioned the Wiki activity, just how many people were invested in the show because of the White Walkers lol). I'm not sure enough people are going to watch these shows to justify the cost.

And as we've all talked about in the past, I just can't see how a story with this ending--where the queen becomes cruel and embittered, is betrayed by everyone, and is then fed to her brother's dragon--is going to go over well in today's climate. It's not like they can change the ending, either, since it's a prequel. I suppose they could change the ending so that Baela or Rhaena ends up in a position of power, but Sansa becoming QitN didn't quell the backlash to season 8, so. . . 

[Sotan]

3 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

This is the main reason why I think planning a dozen different prequels is a bad idea. Even when spin-offs are critically successful, they're never as popular as the original, and these shows are expensive as hell. The backlash to season 8 was so huge that I imagine a pretty sizeable portion of GOT's fanbase isn't going to watch HOTD. (I also hadn't realized, until you mentioned the Wiki activity, just how many people were invested in the show because of the White Walkers lol). I'm not sure enough people are going to watch these shows to justify the cost.

And as we've all talked about in the past, I just can't see how a story with this ending--where the queen becomes cruel and embittered, is betrayed by everyone, and is then fed to her brother's dragon--is going to go over well in today's climate. It's not like they can change the ending, either, since it's a prequel. I suppose they could change the ending so that Baela or Rhaena ends up in a position of power, but Sansa becoming QitN didn't quell the backlash to season 8, so. . . 

Waiting this long to do the prequels was a bad idea, they should've premiered at least one around S5-S6, that way by the time GOT came to an end the prequel show would've had its own identity. As excited as I am for HOTD I know that prequels in general have a very spotty record, not to mention the stink Season 8 left. AT&T/Time Warner doesn't really have a choice though, streaming sort of snuck up on them and HBO MAX is behind Disney+ and Netflix in subscriptions. They need ASOIAF and it looks like they are throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. 

I'm not surprised there was major interest in the White Walker storyline, it was the main existential threat that was supposed to bring everyone together to fight a common enemy or die. They were at the heart of the mysteries and prophecies (PTWP, Azor Ahai), people really wanted to know what it all meant and how our heroes were connected to it all. A decade of build-up leading to..... nothing, is beyond ridiculous, almost a betrayal. I hear people say that was is why Blood Moon failed, no one cares about the WW anymore; but going back to HOTD, knowing how nihilistic the ending of house Targaryen is, are we sure it is any different for HOTD? 

I didn't mind Sansa becoming queen, it was how she became queen that was gross-she is given power by her little brother. After what just happened with Dany and Cersei, eww just no. While Rhaenyra's ending is problematic I don't think its going to be an issue with the general audience tbh, too many people are just comfortable with misogynist tropes because it reflects everything else in humanity's cultural heritage. 

[Jaenara Belarys]

18 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

She was also burned in her fight with Aegon II. After that, she nearly got beheaded a few times.

Nearly. Nearly is quite different from "got beheaded". And lots of people got worse burns in that war (i.e. Alyn Velaryon, all the people hit by more dragonflame). 

[The Dragon Demands]

19 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

If I remember correctly, they said that they loved Theon's ADWD plot, so they combined it with Sansa's for adaptational purposes. I'm personally of the mind that Sansa's book plot will eventually bring her to fAegon, and that would help explain this decision, since they cut Aegon and put Cersei on the throne instead. Of course, I think most of us would agree that cutting Aegon was a huge mistake, especially considering how it affected Daenerys' story.

This is the main reason why I think planning a dozen different prequels is a bad idea. Even when spin-offs are critically successful, they're never as popular as the original, and these shows are expensive as hell. The backlash to season 8 was so huge that I imagine a pretty sizeable portion of GOT's fanbase isn't going to watch HOTD. (I also hadn't realized, until you mentioned the Wiki activity, just how many people were invested in the show because of the White Walkers lol). I'm not sure enough people are going to watch these shows to justify the cost.

And as we've all talked about in the past, I just can't see how a story with this ending--where the queen becomes cruel and embittered, is betrayed by everyone, and is then fed to her brother's dragon--is going to go over well in today's climate. It's not like they can change the ending, either, since it's a prequel. I suppose they could change the ending so that Baela or Rhaena ends up in a position of power, but Sansa becoming QitN didn't quell the backlash to season 8, so. . . 

....because it's probably not the book ending? Anymore than X-Men 3 was the definitive "ending" version of events in the X-Men movie franchise?

[Sotan]

11 minutes ago, The Dragon Demands said:

...because it's probably not the book ending? Anymore than X-Men 3 was the definitive "ending" version of events in the X-Men movie franchise?

We may never know the book ending, that is the saddest part of all. 

[Jaenara Belarys]

 

59 minutes ago, Sotan said:

We may never know the book ending, that is the saddest part of all. 

If I can't read WoW or DoS I'm going to scream. Loudly. 

[The Bard of Banefort]

6 hours ago, Jaenara Belarys said:

Nearly. Nearly is quite different from "got beheaded". And lots of people got worse burns in that war (i.e. Alyn Velaryon, all the people hit by more dragonflame). 

Okay? Even if other people were burned worse, it still sucks to get burned by dragonfire. I'm not sure what the controversy is here.

2 hours ago, The Dragon Demands said:

....because it's probably not the book ending? Anymore than X-Men 3 was the definitive "ending" version of events in the X-Men movie franchise?

I'm confused by this comment. I was talking about the ending to the Dance of the Dragons, which is in the books.

[Sotan]

3 hours ago, Jaenara Belarys said:

 

If I can't read WoW or DoS I'm going to scream. Loudly. 

I know! the past decade waiting for WoW is beyond ominous. 

[Sigella]

On 2/11/2021 at 8:55 PM, Westeros said:

HBO has announced a number of additional castings for House of the Dragon, which is set to begin filming this April. Deadline has a good report with details, but we’ll summarize here:

• Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower, Hand of the King
• Steve Touissant as Corlys Velaryon, Lord of the Waters
• Eve Best as Rhaenys Targaryen
• Sonoya Mizuno as Mysaria

 

read on >>>

 

View the full article

Do we know who gets to be Mushroom? Or if he made the cut?