[Spoilers] Episode 102 Discussion

[DMC]

14 minutes ago, butterweedstrover said:

It’s still mean to Jeff.

 

[The Bard of Banefort]

I thought the writing for the first episode of TROP was pretty meh, but it definitely makes HOTD look rather dreary and nihilistic by comparison. I don’t think I would care for this show if I hadn’t read the books.

They’ve already renewed HOTD for S2, so they clearly have confidence now, but $300 million is still a hell of a lot of money to earn back (if you include production and marketing). I think episode 2 probably did see a sizable dip if you factor in HBO Max malfunctioning on premiere night, although 10 million is undoubtedly still a great number for a premium show.

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

9 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

I think episode 2 probably did see a sizable dip if you factor in HBO Max malfunctioning on premiere night, although 10 million is undoubtedly still a great number for a premium show.

Wasn't there an increase from episode 1 to episode 2?

[The Bard of Banefort]

Just now, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

Wasn't there an increase from episode 1 to episode 2?

Technically, yes. But HBO Max was down for millions of people during the premiere.

[butterweedstrover]

19 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

I thought the writing for the first episode of TROP was pretty meh, but it definitely makes HOTD look rather dreary and nihilistic by comparison. I don’t think I would care for this show if I hadn’t read the books.

They’ve already renewed HOTD for S2, so they clearly have confidence now, but $300 million is still a hell of a lot of money to earn back (if you include production and marketing). I think episode 2 probably did see a sizable dip if you factor in HBO Max malfunctioning on premiere night, although 10 million is undoubtedly still a great number for a premium show.

I actual thought the dialogue in RoP was an antidote to the serious nature of HotD. 
 

Mind you I fell asleep while watching the two episodes but some lines felt really sensitive, warm, and emotionally earnest. 
 

“I have said it a hundred times in every way but words.” was great. 
 

And I did laugh even though the jokes were very wholesome and kid friendly. Like when the cart with the stranger started rolling down the hill or when the dwarf was insisting the elf was only invited inside to apologize and not for dinner. 
 

Seriously though, the only think the shows share is in how uneventful they are, besides that they are complete opposites.

[DMC]

3 minutes ago, butterweedstrover said:

Seriously though, the only think the shows share is in how uneventful they are, besides that they are complete opposites.

Agreed, the shows are extremely different and difficult to compare.  I very much like that.

[The Bard of Banefort]

14 minutes ago, butterweedstrover said:

I actual thought the dialogue in RoP was an antidote to the serious nature of HotD. 
 

Mind you I fell asleep while watching the two episodes but some lines felt really sensitive, warm, and emotionally earnest. 
 

“I have said it a hundred times in every way but words.” was great. 
 

And I did laugh even though the jokes were very wholesome and kid friendly. Like when the cart with the stranger started rolling down the hill or when the dwarf was insisting the elf was only invited inside to apologize and not for dinner. 
 

Seriously though, the only think the shows share is in how uneventful they are, besides that they are complete opposites.

I thought the Harfoots were really cute and funny. Visually, the show was beautiful and so was the music. Even if Galadriel is different than when we saw her in the movies, I thought the actress captured her essence very well. Elrond didn’t remind me of his movie counterpart, but the actor has been great in everything I’ve seen him in, so I’ll hold out hope.

Like HOTD though, the pacing was very slow. The weird thing about HOTD is that it manages to feel like it’s moving both too slow and too fast at the same time—quite the feat.

[butterweedstrover]

5 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

I thought the Harfoots were really cute and funny. Visually, the show was beautiful and so was the music. Even if Galadriel is different than when we saw her in the movies, I thought the actress captured her essence very well. Elrond didn’t remind me of his movie counterpart, but the actor has been great in everything I’ve seen him in, so I’ll hold out hope.

Like HOTD though, the pacing was very slow. The weird thing about HOTD is that it manages to feel like it’s moving both too slow and too fast at the same time—quite the feat.

HotD burns through the plot but time skips a lot of the emotional development or deals with it in a very low key passive way making it feel uneventful like you are cycling through a history book. 
 

RoP is just painfully slow. But it has the cute factor going for it and the visual quality is very pretty in a clean and gentle sort of way. 
 

It’s relaxing. I did fall asleep but that is not really a criticism, the whole thing was like a soothing rhyme that drifted me off. I don’t see it cultivating a hardcore following though.

[The Bard of Banefort]

40 minutes ago, butterweedstrover said:

HotD burns through the plot but time skips a lot of the emotional development or deals with it in a very low key passive way making it feel uneventful like you are cycling through a history book. 
 

RoP is just painfully slow. But it has the cute factor going for it and the visual quality is very pretty in a clean and gentle sort of way. 
 

It’s relaxing. I did fall asleep but that is not really a criticism, the whole thing was like a soothing rhyme that drifted me off. I don’t see it cultivating a hardcore following though.

I haven’t gotten to the dwarves yet, who I’ve heard are the best part.

It sounds like they filmed a bunch of scenes for HOTD that were cut. The leaks have gotten pretty much everything right so far, but they also said we’d see Laena claim Vhagar, Rhaenyra confront Alicent (with Rhaenyra calling her a whore and Alicent telling her that none of this was her idea), and Rhaenyra deciding to help Alicent dress for the wedding. I’m not sure why these were cut, but I’m guessing they were, seeing as episode 2 is considerably shorter.

[C.T. Phipps]

2 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

I thought the writing for the first episode of TROP was pretty meh, but it definitely makes HOTD look rather dreary and nihilistic by comparison. I don’t think I would care for this show if I hadn’t read the books.

They’ve already renewed HOTD for S2, so they clearly have confidence now, but $300 million is still a hell of a lot of money to earn back (if you include production and marketing). I think episode 2 probably did see a sizable dip if you factor in HBO Max malfunctioning on premiere night, although 10 million is undoubtedly still a great number for a premium show.

It was 20,000,000 after four days.

[The Bard of Banefort]

21 minutes ago, C.T. Phipps said:

It was 20,000,000 after four days.

Right. So chances are some of those people tried watching on the first night and couldn’t. But I admit that it doesn’t really matter either way.

[Ran]

I think the amount who failed to see it that day who tried to see it that day probably isn't too large. The outage did not last all day, after all.

If we hear the show managed 20+million through Thursday tomorrow, it will have held there too, at which point I think we can stop speculating as to whether the same-day figures are accurate or not.

[EggBlue]

an interesting interview with Eve Best and Steve Toussaint about Velaryon's family dynamics.

the interviewer asks Steve whether Corlys favors one of his children over the other . to which he answers of his own understanding of the character rather than the scripts per se' . he says that Corlys seems to favor his daughter more and is harder on Laenor . which I conclude as he probably does blame Laenor for not siring children of his own. probably a contributing factor to why he's seemingly fine with Rhaenyra . another interesting part to me is that during casting process they have apparently talked about Corlys's fatherhood aspect more than anything (Steve mentioned that in previous interviews as well) .  a huge aspect in old Corlys considering he is pretty much done with ambition after Rhaenys's death and just wants to see all his grandkids (and adopted grandkids aka, Aegon the younger) survive the war.

 

and with that notion in mind , I finally have a good guess about "history does not remember blood, it remembers names" ... probably Laenor , like Rhaenyra, refuses the marriage... reasons with his father that Driftmark could go to Laena's children as she is also Corlys's blood . to which Corlys likely replies" you idiot , they are Targaryens !" 

Edited September 2, 2022 by EggBlue

[The Bard of Banefort]

*sigh*

It’s alright. The exact number of views doesn’t matter, either way the show’s a hit. It’s been very successful, which is good news for all involved. A couple million views either way won’t change that. I’m glad many of you like the show and that it’s doing well. Truly, I am. 

That’s all.

Edited September 2, 2022 by The Bard of Banefort

[The Bard of Banefort]

1 hour ago, EggBlue said:

an interesting interview with Eve Best and Steve Toussaint about Velaryon's family dynamics.

the interviewer asks Steve whether Corlys favors one of his children over the other . to which he answers of his own understanding of the character rather than the scripts per se' . he says that Corlys seems to favor his daughter more and is harder on Laenor . which I conclude as he probably does blame Laenor for not siring children of his own. probably a contributing factor to why he's seemingly fine with Rhaenyra . another interesting part to me is that during casting process they have apparently talked about Corlys's fatherhood aspect more than anything (Steve mentioned that in previous interviews as well) .  a huge aspect in old Corlys considering he is pretty much done with ambition after Rhaenys's death and just wants to see all his grandkids (and adopted grandkids aka, Aegon the younger) survive the war.

 

and with that notion in mind , I finally have a good guess about "history does not remember blood, it remembers names" ... probably Laenor , like Rhaenyra, refuses the marriage... reasons with his father that Driftmark could go to Laena's children as she is also Corlys's blood . to which Corlys likely replies" you idiot , they are Targaryens !" 

In the books, I interpreted it as Corlys and Rhaenys believing that Laenor was to blame for not fathering any kids of his own, which is why they weren’t angry with Rhaenyra. I think the line about remembering names refers to how the boys—and presumably the future king of Westeros—will be named Velaryon, and that’s all that matters.

[C.T. Phipps]

5 hours ago, zajaz said:

Poor Jeff Bezos. I'm sure he must be worrying about what is he going to eat, or where is he going to sleep this night. Do you guys know where I can donate some money for him?

What kind of name is Jesk anyway?

(WWDITS reference)

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

11 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

*sigh*

It’s alright. The exact number of views doesn’t matter, either way the show’s a hit. It’s been very successful, which is good news for all involved. A couple million views either way won’t change that. I’m glad many of you like the show and that it’s doing well. Truly, I am. 

That’s all.

Has something happened?

[Jaenara Belarys]

@zajaz, I find your lack of "General Kenobi" disturbing. 

5 hours ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

Not if RoP is a success, which we still don't know.

Will HOTD impact RoP, do you think? 

[The Dragon Demands]

6 hours ago, Ran said:

Having some inside dope on the corporate side of things, the pose from HBO and is international partners that that were highly confident the show would be a big hit was a bit of PR. There were some real fears. I was told this by someone employed by a close partner of HBO who I know is in regular contact with executives there, who basically shared that there were executives "shitting themselves" as the premiere approached.

 

But those concerns no longer exist. The huge viewership of the show 3 years after the previous show ended in controversy, the huge viewership not just in the US but in the UK and Europe, has proven that people want more. Releasing the episode for free is not new for HBO to do, but the timing is certainly twisting the knife at Amazon, giving people who aren't sure what they want to see a chance to see and compare the shows directly if they have Prime but not HBO. To me, that's a sign of confidence, not a lack of it.

Hey, we've been closely following filming news for two years, and had every reason to be fully confident in the new production team, and even WE were shitting ourselves when it came done to the wire on premiere night. The real X-factor for me though wasn't if it would be good, but if audiences would even come back....and yeah, I'm seeing quite a few major review channels who had vocally abandoned the franchise praising the House of the Dragon premiere and admitting they were wrong to pre-judge it: AngryJoe, Quinn's Ideas, etc.

[C.T. Phipps]

44 minutes ago, Jaenara Belarys said:

@zajaz, I find your lack of "General Kenobi" disturbing. 

Will HOTD impact RoP, do you think? 

I mean some artificial drama and good natured fan rivalry, probably, but no reason you can't watch both unless it's a case of choosing which service you have due to finance.