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HBO Announces Production Begins on House of the Dragon


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26 minutes ago, DisneyDoc2425 said:

Warner Brothers is building a medieval castle set on the shores of Cornwell in England with a Sigel that looks like a slightly modified seahorse. Most probably to represent Driftmark. Personally I think Corlys Velyrion will likely be a major protagonist in the story. Perhaps he will end up being the major "overall" major hero in the story. 

That Deadline article from back in December which reported the rumor that Danny Sapani would play Corlys stated there are 5 leads in the show Viserys, Daemon, Alicent, Rhaenyra and Corlys. Deadline was wrong it would be Sapani (probably due to conflicting schedules with the Halo tv series currently in production) but they were right with the direction writers were going with Corlys being black. Add to that the Sea Snake spin off is one of the prequels announced, and I remember reading somewhere further along in development than the others, suggests that Coryls is a major player in HOTD. His character is compelling enough that they are creating a show around him. 

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That's an interesting point. We might have a child Rhaenyra in maybe the first episode, then a time jump with D'Arcy as the teenage/twenty-something Rhaenyra and then a further timejump in Season 2 with new actors playing Rhaenyra and Alicent.

That does feel a bit cumbersome though. More likely that they'll complete vague up the timeline and just have two time periods.

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Well, if they're going to change trivial details, then they'll probably change big details, and HotD will be as ****ed up as Seasons 7 and 8. She might be prettier thin, and that's nice, but you should follow the books.

Given how little GoT followed the books even when they had detailed novels to use as source material, I think expecting close-in fidelity to the source material when it's a hundred pages of a fake history book is a bit optimistic. HotD is, effectively, based on a very loose plot outline (the same as the upcoming LotR show for that matter) and they'll probably feel even more at liberty than the prior show to change things around.

They'll follow the general beats of the Dance but they will engage in Hollywood casting (no characters getting fat) and they'll probably look to evade plot redundancies from GoT itself (more likely the case if they don't cast Mushroom and they completely avoid the "disputed parentage" storyline). One thing I do hope they follow through on is keeping both sides morally murky, with good and bad people and good and bad decisions being made on both sides.

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22 minutes ago, The Dragon Demands said:

I hold out hope that the fact Viserys's character bio mentions the Great Council of Harrenhal and even Jaehaerys by name means we'll see the council and the old king himself in the first episode.

Is Queen Alysanne alive at this time? 

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11 minutes ago, DisneyDoc2425 said:

She died in 100AC-about a year or so before the Great Council in 101 AC. 

They can fudge a year and keep her alive. She was the most prominent voice for Rhaenys right to the IT. If they do have the old king in the early episodes, may as well have Alysane and show what a contentious and explosive issue female succession is if its driving a rift between an ancient royal couple. 

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5 hours ago, The Dragon Demands said:

Quite a few are saying it would be fat-shaming or "thin-washing" not to cast a heavyset actress as older Rhaenyra.

That seems to me a very weird take in general. Being fat isn't really an identity as such, just as being very thin isn't. Weight isn't the same as skin color, sexual orientation or even gender identity. And fictional characters are just fictional ... they are not 'washed' in any direction. D'Arcy is very well qualified to play Rhaenyra throughout the entire show.

And I get it that media should somewhat more diverse in the beauty idea department and stuff, but obesity is actually a main health risk. That shouldn't be pushed as something positive in the media ... just as we shouldn't celebrate folks on television who identify as avid smokers or something along those lines.

5 hours ago, Werthead said:

Based on the casting sides someone reported a while ago, the show starts in 105 AC with Queen Aemma's death. Based on other hints and info, it then goes through a period of Daeron being heir, then being displaced in favour of Rhaenyra, with The Rogue Prince narrative unfolding before we get to the Dance. I suspect we'll see some eliding or unspoken compression of the timeline (also some rumours that a young Rhaenyra might have been cast as well, so there'll be a timeskip at some point).

My feeling has been that Season 1 will end with Viserys's death and the Dance itself starting, with Paddy Considine being this show's Sean Bean.

If they were streamlining things to that degree then it is very odd that we have that Harrold Westerling fellow as a main/regular cast member ... and we should have Aegon the Elder, Helaena, Aemond, Daeron, and all of Rhaenyra's sons as main cast members. They would all feature rather prominently in the later episodes of season 1.

I'd also not agree that Viserys I's death could be something akin to Ned's death - the man dies slowly over a couple of months/years in the outline, and his death doesn't come as a surprise.

They would also be very well advised to not try to rip off GoT with the Ned thing ... rather they should use more soap-like elements to keep things entertaining, which could be done with all the different marriages and romances we are likely to get.

A good way to close season 1 would thus be the end of Rhaenyra's relationship/whatever with Criston Cole and his decision side with the Greens and the Laenor marriage.

Also, Queen Aemma shouldn't already be dead at the beginning, since her death immediately triggers the installation of Rhaenyra as Heir Apparent (due to the 'heir for a day' line). It would thus make more sense if they had Aemma die, say, at the end of the first or second episode, and then move on from there to Rhaenyra becoming the heir, Viserys falling for and marrying Alicent, Rhaenyra and Alicent getting more and more problems, Criston and Rhaenyra getting it going, etc. while at the same time also portraying Daemon's story with the City Watch, his wife Rhea, his affair with Mysaria, the Stepstones war with the Velaryons, etc.

The really entertaining thing - or perhaps even the only entertaining thing - in this show won't be 'when does the war start' but rather: who is going to fight who when the war starts? And that only works if the Black/Green divide will slowly develop and other issues - like Daemon as a wild card before he marries Rhaenyra and the Velaryons as a rival branch of the royal family who nurture their own grievances - are in the forefront most of the time.

Where I'd condense things is with Vhagar issue in 120 AC. That I'd move closer to the beginning of the war, with the boys involved already being in their teens.

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2 hours ago, Werthead said:

That's an interesting point. We might have a child Rhaenyra in maybe the first episode, then a time jump with D'Arcy as the teenage/twenty-something Rhaenyra and then a further timejump in Season 2 with new actors playing Rhaenyra and Alicent.

They could jump ahead after the end of season 1. Let's say I'm somewhat correct that season 1 covers things loosely from 104-113 AC (Aemma's death to Rhaenyra's first marriage). They could push all those events into about a couple of years, they don't have to do it in a decade, if Rhaenyra is already in her teens as played by D'Arcy.

A time jump could then have Rhaenyra's sons and Alicent's children as being old enough to be characters in their own right - say, in their early teens or so. And in that setting we could then the escalation down to the beginning of the war which would start at the end of the second season.

Daemon's story in the first season could also close with his weirdo marriage to Laena.

A buildup covering only one season should have started later and would have framed the whole buildup more as a squabble among siblings than the entire Alicent/Rhaenyra condundrum. In fact, the characters of Alicent and Criston Cole make only sense in this entire thing if we do have detailed backstory for them. A quick Dance-buildup scenario may have worked much better with Aegon II himself staging a coup and crowning himself king because he wanted that ... his mother and grandfather and KG buddy could have either been cut or simply be his supporters, not people with their own agendas who push this entire thing.

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THIS IS NOT A DRILL: DAILY MAIL UK JUST LEAKED OUT THE FIRST PHOTOS OF EMMA D'ARCY (RHAENYRA) and MATT SMITH (DAEMON) IN FULL COSTUME

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-9518859/House-Dragon-LOOK-Matt-Smith-Emma-DArcy-film-Cornwall-beach.html

Costuming-wise, Matt Smith looks pretty good - longish hair, his sharp cheekbones work well with Targaryen looks...they didn't keep the clothing style of Harry Lloyd's Viserys III. He's wearing more generic King's Landing clothes (symmetrical cut)....peaked shoulders though.

....But jaw-dropping....Emma D'Arcy looks like book-Rhaenyra.

First off just in terms of the actor; some were worried that Emma has short hair in real life, but we kept saying "they'll look different with a silver wig", and indeed that is the case; sharp cheekbones also working well.

The real mind-blowing thing is the COSTUME....it DIRECTLY matches GRRM's detailed description of how Rhaenyra dressed:

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Rhaenyra did have the silver-gold hair of the Targaryens, which she wore long and braided in the manner of Aegon the First's warrior wife Visenya. Rhaenyra was no warrior herself. She always dressed richly, favoring purple and maroon velvets and golden Myrish lace in intricate patterns. Her bodice often glittered with pearls and diamonds, and there were always rings on her fingers.

Black dress with an undercoat of purple and maroons. Check.

LARGE SINGLE HAIR BRAID!

One thing of note is that if you zoom in, I'm pretty sure that Rhaenyra has *earrings*.  Which is notable because earrings are NEVER described in the books, nor did they ever appear in the Game of Thrones TV series.

I anticipated this actually; Emma D'Arcy has very large ear piercings, so wide that they couldn't be hidden if they tried to actively enforce some "no earrings" rule. So they ran with it. Fine, that's what I'd do.

It's fascinating because while we've had glimpses of a "royal court Targaryen" style through Viserys III etc., we never got a female version of it (Daenerys had her own thing going on).  

But this feels RIGHT.

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They certainly appear as I would envision them from the book. It would have been nice to have seen a clear frontal close-up of Rhaenyra. From what I see she appears as a relatively "mature" Rhaenyra, as I would picture her during the Dance itself or just before it. I wonder if these scenes are being filmed as part of the initial trailer for the show. 

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1 hour ago, DisneyDoc2425 said:

They certainly appear as I would envision them from the book. It would have been nice to have seen a clear frontal close-up of Rhaenyra. From what I see she appears as a relatively "mature" Rhaenyra, as I would picture her during the Dance itself or just before it. I wonder if these scenes are being filmed as part of the initial trailer for the show. 

I mean yes. She doesn't, really look like the Rhaenyra Daemon was chasing when she was 16, altough I think that's the scene the picture captured. It looks more like Daemon and Rhaenyra in 120AC, but we'll see.

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Rhaenyra looks really great!

They even gave her the rings she wears on the original portraits, and the way she clutches her hands behind her back in that one picture could indicate we might also get her nervous ticks/compulsions when she is angry/afraid.

Have to say, though, that I still don't like the toned down, practically shabby look for royalty in general in this show. Daemon is the brother of the king, he wouldn't walk around completely in black like some NW guy, and regardless how expensive the fabric might be, he would be richly dressed and this would show.

This kind of silly modernism was also very much evident in GoT already.

I'd expect this is how the characters will look for most of the show. That's not an older Rhaenyra, it is how she and Daemon will look in the early 100s. I'd expect that Rhaenyra was aged up about a decade or so compared to the books - which is really no big deal.

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Oh, and considering D'Arcy's age it is kind of ridiculous to assume we will ever get an actress playing an 'old(er) Rhaenyra'. In the books, the woman dies at the age of thirty-three, and right now D'Arcy is twenty-eight.

Even if they aged up Rhaenyra somewhat, they are not all that likely to extend the years of the reign of Viserys I, so Rhaenyra should still die somewhat in her thirties.

If they want they could do flashbacks to her childhood and whatnot, but if they wanted to do the Great Council that way she could still be played by D'Arcy because unless they change things more dramatically that would have been just a couple of years before the beginning of the show.

Rhaenyra as a child would be all the way back when Aemon died and Baelon was named heir instead of Rhaenys. If they were not to change that date and only aging up Rhaenyra she would have been born around 87 AC or so, meaning that she would have been there when her great-uncle died.

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4 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

Oh, and considering D'Arcy's age it is kind of ridiculous to assume we will ever get an actress playing an 'old(er) Rhaenyra'. In the books, the woman dies at the age of thirty-three, and right now D'Arcy is twenty-eight.

I agree. I get people being concerned that Cooke looks way to young to be the mother of adult men, but D'Arcy is the perfect age for Rhaenyra as the mother of teen, pre-teen and young boys. 

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12 hours ago, The Dragon Demands said:

THIS IS NOT A DRILL: DAILY MAIL UK JUST LEAKED OUT THE FIRST PHOTOS OF EMMA D'ARCY (RHAENYRA) and MATT SMITH (DAEMON) IN FULL COSTUME

Hmmmmm. It looks tacky. Whoever is playing Daemon has a face that's too narrow. 

 

42 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

Just hope that The Witcher taught them that they can and should do the purple eyes thing. They are not really Targaryens if they don't have the purple eyes.

You saying that Good Queen Alysanne wasn't a Targaryen? :| 

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1 hour ago, Lord Varys said:

 

Oh, and considering D'Arcy's age it is kind of ridiculous to assume we will ever get an actress playing an 'old(er) Rhaenyra'. In the books, the woman dies at the age of thirty-three, and right now D'Arcy is twenty-eight.

 

Dawson Casting.

Emma’s  resume lists “playing age” as “18 to 26”.

I mean, Emilia Clarke was 22 in Season 1...playing a 16 year old.

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