House of the Dragon Flood Gates Open

[The Bard of Banefort]

2 hours ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

Plus, several people have said that just based on the first episode, HotD is going to be better than GoT. I don't know if they mean the entirety of GoT or just the later seasons, though.

It’s good that they left with such a good impression, but you can’t judge an entire show just by the first episode.

I was hoping we’d hear more reactions by now, but I guess there weren’t that many reporters/content creators there. I’m guessing the premiere was this early because California is bringing back a lot of their COVID restrictions this weekend.

[The Bard of Banefort]

9 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

Knowing the American audience, I expect that means she is going to have sex and she will enjoy it.

Hmm funny you should say that. The other day I saw someone online call Americans prudes, and it was so quaint. It was like getting in a time machine and traveling back to 2015. I haven’t seen a European complain about us being prudes in ages. Nowadays all the complaining is about wokeness.

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

2 hours ago, Mystical said:

The first episode is just that, the first episode. Plenty of shows have a crappy Premiere but the show finds itself over the course of the first Season. Just like plenty of shows have a stellar Premiere (especially shows that get pre-Premieres like this one) and then the quality for the rest of the Season dips. It also says nothing about the long term quality of the show.

I mean, who knows. I've been sceptical about HotD up to this point, but if the showrunners manage to turn what is essentially 200 pages of notes into a great TV series then they deserve a ton of credit.

[Lord Varys]

6 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Hmm funny you should say that. The other day I saw someone online call Americans prudes, and it was so quaint. It was like getting in a time machine and traveling back to 2015. I haven’t seen a European complain about us being prudes in ages. Nowadays all the complaining is about wokeness.

It was more a joke here, really, since I don't think book Rhaenyra does anything even remotely questionable in the early reign of her father when she is a preteen girl. No foundation for anyone to come the conclusion that she has been white-washed or not. She has been aged up for the show, but all teenage Rhaenyra does is having sex or wanting to have sex, so that should be it there ... if they didn't completely revamp the character.

In general, though, the US are remarkably prude - have severe issues with breastfeeding in public, presume to regulate the private lives of people working at the same company (or rather: legally give companies the right to regulate the private lives of their employees), have issues with people getting naked taking showers at public baths (not to show themselves off, simply to clean yourself completely), view romantic relationships among first cousins as 'incest', actually don't permit 'swearing' in public television (I honestly thought the whole beeping nonsense was ironic), etc.

[The Bard of Banefort]

1 hour ago, Lord Varys said:

It was more a joke here, really, since I don't think book Rhaenyra does anything even remotely questionable in the early reign of her father when she is a preteen girl. No foundation for anyone to come the conclusioned whether she has been white-washed or not. She has been aged up for the show, but all the teenage Rhaenyra does is having sex or wanting to have sex, so that should be it there ... if they didn't completely revamp the character.

In general, though, the US are remarkably prude - have severe issues with breastfeeding in public, presume to regulate the private lives of people working at the same company (or rather: legally give companies the right to regulate the private lives of their employees), have issues with people getting naked taking showers at public baths (not to show themselves off, simply to clean yourself completely), view romantic relationships among first cousins as 'incest', actually don't permit 'swearing' in public television (I honestly thought the whole beeping nonsense was ironic), etc.

I know, I just find the shift kind of funny.

(I originally wrote a lot more, but it’s so far off-topic that I figured I should take it down).

Back to Rhaenyra, she apparently has a “rebel spirit,” although I’m not sure what that means. I’m thinking she might just be a bit of a spoiled brat.

[Mystical]

2 hours ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

I mean, who knows. I've been sceptical about HotD up to this point, but if the showrunners manage to turn what is essentially 200 pages of notes into a great TV series then they deserve a ton of credit.

Reading what the showrunners and actors have to say, I have ZERO interest in this show. I was never really interested in the 'Kardashians of Westeros' because I don't care about the Targs. But I was gonna wait until the first Season was complete and maybe give it a binge just out of morbid curiosity. But good Lord, their comments have killed what little curiosity I had.

[SeanF]

11 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

I know, I just find the shift kind of funny.

Most immigrants came here either alone or with their immediate families, so any habit of marrying your cousins was lost by virtue of there not being any cousins around. Same with the dominance of the English language—when everyone in the community speaks a different language, there needs to be some kind of “common tongue.” 

Swearing in public is considered rather impolite/crude here. We’re definitely not the only culture with that custom though. Not sure what you’re referring to with companies regulating their employees’ lives.

People tend to blame the Puritans for sexual prudishness, but anyone who’s done any reading on the Puritans knows that’s not really true. The most compelling theory I’ve heard is that the explosion of the porn industry in the 1970s and the commercialization of sexuality inadvertently created an unconscious link between nudity and sexual exploitation. But again, I don’t think we’re that big of an outlier when compared to the rest of the world at-large.

 

Back to Rhaenyra, she apparently has a “rebel spirit,” although I’m not sure what that means. I’m thinking she might just be a bit of a spoiled brat.

One big difference between the US and UK (and I suspect much of the Continent) is the disapproval of drinking alcohol.  The pub/tavern/cafe culture on this side of the Atlantic just doesn't seem to exist on the other side. Social occasions where we would have alcohol as a matter of course are dry in the US.  I'm told that German immigrants brought beer gardens with them, but that culture was destroyed by prohibition.

[The Bard of Banefort]

8 minutes ago, SeanF said:

One big difference between the US and UK (and I suspect much of the Continent) is the disapproval of drinking alcohol.  The pub/tavern/cafe culture on this side of the Atlantic just doesn't seem to exist on the other side. Social occasions where we would have alcohol as a matter of course are dry in the US.  I'm told that German immigrants brought beer gardens with them, but that culture was destroyed by prohibition.

Caffeine is more of our vice. You can’t go a mile without running into a Starbucks/Dunkin/Krispy Kreme/coffeehouse. 

In a way, Prohibition was a tragedy. A lot of people don’t know that the Temperance Movement was spearheaded by domestic violence survivors who blamed alcohol for their husbands and fathers gambling away their money and flying into abusive rages. Luckily, there has been a lot of improvement on that front during the last century.

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

21 minutes ago, Mystical said:

I was never really interested in the 'Kardashians of Westeros' because I don't care about the Targs.

An argument can be made that all the great houses are the Kardashians of Westeros and that's a big part of the story in both ASOIAF and F&B.

[SeanF]

12 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Caffeine is more of our vice. You can’t go a mile without running into a Starbucks/Dunkin/Krispy Kreme/coffeehouse. 

In a way, Prohibition was a tragedy. A lot of people don’t know that the Temperance Movement was spearheaded by domestic violence survivors who blamed alcohol for their husbands and fathers gambling away their money and flying into abusive rages. Luckily, there has been a lot of improvement on that front during the last century.

They were probably right about that, too.  Before working class people became savers and property owners, better wages very frequently got spent on alcohol and gambling.  Part of the answer was to provide better outlets for spending money, rather than banning alcohol.

[C.T. Phipps]

I admit to being more excited about this series than actual Game of Thrones. The fact that George R.R. Martin has given them a complete outline for the book and we have all the emotional as well as story beats is something I am very confident will translate well into television. I can't wait to also be knowledgeble about what's coming that my family isn't going to be. Bwhahaha.

Just like Ned and the Red Wedding.

Rhaenyra is one of my favorite characters in all of Westeros history as well. She's such a deep and complicated murderous little tyrant but I still side with her as well. I think fans will really gravitate to her and understand her actions even when they descend to making her a figure of terror.

[The Bard of Banefort]

1 hour ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

An argument can be made that all the great houses are the Kardashians of Westeros and that's a big part of the story in both ASOIAF and F&B.

OMG imagine if they made a show about the Tyrells? They’d have to go full-Real Housewives for that one 

40 minutes ago, C.T. Phipps said:

I admit to being more excited about this series than actual Game of Thrones. The fact that George R.R. Martin has given them a complete outline for the book and we have all the emotional as well as story beats is something I am very confident will translate well into television. I can't wait to also be knowledgeble about what's coming that my family isn't going to be. Bwhahaha.

Just like Ned and the Red Wedding.

Rhaenyra is one of my favorite characters in all of Westeros history as well. She's such a deep and complicated murderous little tyrant but I still side with her as well. I think fans will really gravitate to her and understand her actions even when they descend to making her a figure of terror.

My favorite Dance-era character is Jace, so I hope they adapt him well. Just based on what I’ve seen thus far, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Rhaenys is the breakout fan favorite, which is pretty cool considering that you don’t see that too often with older actresses. (One criticism I’ve seen of HOTD is that they hired a 27-year-old to play Alicent, who will be a grandmother by the end of S1, rather than an actress *shudder* over the age of 30. I’m sure Olivia Cooke will be great, but it is a little ridiculous. I’m willing to bet Alys Rivers will be way younger too).

Despite my distaste for GOT, I actually do buy merch that applies to the books too. Hot Topic is back to selling GOT tees again, at least online (they weren’t for a while), and I love the Funko Pops. I’m also looking forward to all the fanart the show will hopefully inspire. I have an Instagram page where I share ASOIAF fanart, and when I first started, I assumed that the Targaryens would be the most popular posts, since the Dany stans are so passionate. But no, I was wrong—by far and away, the Lannisters are the most popular. This is another reason why I think a Lannister spin-off (pre-GOT) would be a big hit.

[SeanF]

15 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

OMG imagine if they made a show about the Tyrells? They’d have to go full-Real Housewives for that one 

My favorite Dance-era character is Jace, so I hope they adapt him well. Just based on what I’ve seen thus far, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Rhaenys is the breakout fan favorite, which is pretty cool considering that you don’t see that too often with older actresses. (One criticism I’ve seen of HOTD is that they hired a 27-year-old to play Alicent, who will be a grandmother by the end of S1, rather than an actress *shudder* over the age of 30. I’m sure Olivia Cooke will be great, but it is a little ridiculous. I’m willing to bet Alys Rivers will be way younger too).

Despite my distaste for GOT, I actually do buy merch that applies to the books too. Hot Topic is back to selling GOT tees again, at least online (they weren’t for a while), and I love the Funko Pops. I’m also looking forward to all the fanart the show will hopefully inspire. I have an Instagram page where I share ASOIAF fanart, and when I first started, I assumed that the Targaryens would be the most popular posts, since the Dany stans are so passionate. But no, I was wrong—by far and away, the Lannisters are the most popular. This is another reason why I think a Lannister spin-off (pre-GOT) would be a big hit.

The Freys would be the Duck Dynasty.

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

25 minutes ago, SeanF said:

The Freys would be the Duck Dynasty.

No, that would be the story about Rolly Duckfield and his family. 

[EggBlue]

3 hours ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

No, that would be the story about Rolly Duckfield and his family. 

isn't he celibate?

[C.T. Phipps]

4 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

(One criticism I’ve seen of HOTD is that they hired a 27-year-old to play Alicent, who will be a grandmother by the end of S1, rather than an actress *shudder* over the age of 30. I’m sure Olivia Cooke will be great, but it is a little ridiculous. I’m willing to bet Alys Rivers will be way younger too).

Thank you! This was in the back of my head and I couldn't figure out what was bothering me. I kept getting confused as to who was playing "young" Alicent Hightower.

Mind you, I still think of Olivia Cooke as Art3mis.

[C.T. Phipps]

On a related note, I'm taking odds on where Season One will end:

* The first dragon fight

* Blood and Cheese

[Colonel Green]

13 minutes ago, C.T. Phipps said:

On a related note, I'm taking odds on where Season One will end:

* The first dragon fight

* Blood and Cheese

My guess is that it ends with the death of Viserys.

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

On 7/28/2022 at 11:30 PM, The Wondering Wolf said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Aegon knew about the White Walkers and thus conquered Westeros to unite it.

 

So... from what I have seen, people aren't very happy with this idea and are really questioning GRRM right now.

[The Bard of Banefort]

24 minutes ago, C.T. Phipps said:

Thank you! This was in the back of my head and I couldn't figure out what was bothering me. I kept getting confused as to who was playing "young" Alicent Hightower.

Mind you, I still think of Olivia Cooke as Art3mis.

Yeah, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure she nailed the audition, but it is kind of bullshit that the showrunners hired someone still shy of 30 to play a grandmother. Emily Carey could have definitely still played 20-something Alicent.