HBO Eyeing Aegon the Conqueror Series, Possible Feature Film

[The Dragon Demands]

This does raise an issue: the Starks & Lannisters are barely in the first half of Fire & Blood, from the Conquest through the fall of Maegor. The general audience will be eager for them.

Oh they're in it a bit, but as important "guest stars"; even the Lannisters were outsiders at the royal court in the first century of the Iron Throne - Tyland was the FIRST one on the small council. This wasn't too much of a problem with House of the Dragon Season 1: maybe not too many Starks, but hey, there's a Lannister on the small council we can point to. 

In contrast....this is more episodic. The Starks are barely in it except for Torrhen, then they utterly disappear in the Faith Militant uprising years because they follow the Old Gods. Lannisters...show up a BIT in Rhaena's side story, but don't really do that much. 

Let's hope that House of the Dragon gets a general audience ALSO interested in "hey, what are the Hightowers and Velaryons doing in the Conquest generation?"

[Lord Varys]

Obviously, a continuation of a Conquest show would then eventually move on to Aenys and Maegor. But the Conquest as such could be an interesting story if fleshed out properly, taking care develop the rulers of the Seven Kingdoms as well as their family and some of their bannermen.

FaB's account of the Conquest is a very short and concise outline. There is no substance there, no character development whatsoever. And of course they could play up the setbacks the Targaryens suffer and the danger they find themselves in occasionally.

Also, of course, one could go with a subplot where certain things happening during the Conquest lay the seeds for the Faith Militant Uprising later, possibly by ways of a conspiracy among the people who are not exactly happy with how things turned out.

But the way to make this work is basically by way of building things up and fleshing things out before you get to the actual Conquest.

[Mystical]

On 4/5/2023 at 1:38 AM, The Dragon Demands said:

That sounds like Stark talk. I don't like it.

Fire & Blood alone move the wheels of history!

It's not Stark talk. It's me being bored af of the same crap.

Wheels of history? Thousands of years of unexplored history in Westeros alone (nvm Essos). And the First Men, the Others and Andals changed Westeros more than the Targs ever did. Who knows what else happened before those or in between.

[GZ Bloodraven]

On 4/4/2023 at 4:44 PM, The Dragon Demands said:

In contrast....this is more episodic. The Starks are barely in it except for Torrhen, then they utterly disappear in the Faith Militant uprising years because they follow the Old Gods. Lannisters...show up a BIT in Rhaena's side story, but don't really do that much. 

It would be super interesting if it focused more on the Westerosi perspective. There are only six Targaryens, and a bunch of minor unknown Crownlands houses, so centering them as the out-and-out protagonists would be odd especially since they are separated for most of the actual conquering. Focusing on Mern and his lackey Harlan or Loreon, Torrhen or Sharra as major perspectives and characters would set it apart from HotD and kind of reframe the Aegon narrative in an interesting way.

[The Bard of Banefort]

I still think young Tywin could make for a great show, especially if they included his full family this time. 

I never really cared much about Robert’s Rebellion, but fans bring it up all the time and I think it could be a really popular project. There might be a break in continuity for the ToJ/Lyanna’s wedding, but honestly, who cares? I vaguely remember hearing that GRRM didn’t like the idea of a RR prequel, but if he’s willing to let other people create a Tourney of Harrenhal stage play, I doubt he wouldn’t relent on this.

[Craving Peaches]

If it's anything like how it was in Fire and Blood I would not be interested at all. That part I found really dull and uninteresting to be honest. When reading it it just felt like this over and over again: The smaller Targaryen army was loosing - then the dragons showed up. There was no tension or suspense at all because you knew the dragons were going to thrash the opposing side every time. It reached the point where I just felt apathy every time a dragon was on page.

The only way I think it could be made interesting is if they focus specifically on the failed conquest of Dorne and give us POVs who aren't pro-Targaryen, show us that the dragons aren't invincible and that the human spirit can prevail.

But I think there are many things that could be made that are more interesting than Aegon's conquest: Robert's Rebellion, the War of the Ninepenny Kings, the First Men or the Andals coming to Westeros for the first time, any of the myths (those could make a good miniseries, one episode for each myth), the Blackfyre Rebellions...

[The Bard of Banefort]

On 4/4/2023 at 7:38 PM, The Dragon Demands said:

That sounds like Stark talk. I don't like it.

Fire & Blood alone move the wheels of history!

I thought you were a hardcore Sansa stan?

[RumHam]

On 4/4/2023 at 2:24 AM, Farerb said:

I know there are people who want to have a show about Jaehaerys' family drama but that would just bore people in my opinion. 

Not if they film it like a trashy reality show, talking head interviews and all. I'd watch that. I'm still disappointed that House of the Dragon wasn't a home renovation show about Maegor building the Red Keep where he kills everyone at the end. 

On 4/4/2023 at 2:44 PM, Luca said:

Aegon conquest could work as a movie, and the series could be Dorne / Aenys / Maegor

The more I think about it, a movie would have to rush through too much. You could do it, but I think the change in pacing would be jarring. 

A movie about say, House Stark during the conquest limited in focus could work. 

[GZ Bloodraven]

20 hours ago, RumHam said:

Not if they film it like a trashy reality show, talking head interviews and all. I'd watch that. I'm still disappointed that House of the Dragon wasn't a home renovation show about Maegor building the Red Keep where he kills everyone at the end. 

There is something to be said for a genre mixup for the future shows. If we get, like, 5 gritty dramas in a row it'll make sense for the gritty dramatic world, I guess, but they could really have fun with the medium more. An Aegon IV family sitcom, or a proper Detective Cregan Stark murder mystery movie, or a Euron horror movie. The world is so big and so deep that it can fit different film genres. 

[The Dragon Demands]

HBO Max - now called "Max" - just greenlit the Dunk & Egg prequel: they were deciding between calling it "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" or "The Hedge Knight", and decided to just combine it:

"A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight"

GRRM is attached as a "writer" (???) and executive producer, along with Ira Parker (who wrote HotD episode 1.4); Martin's agent Vince Gerardis as well as Ryan Condal are also attached. No mention of Steve Conrad but I assume he's on it?
 

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/game-of-thrones-prequel-series-a-knight-of-the-seven-kingdoms-hbo-1235578466/

[Farerb]

So does it mean that the show about Aegon's Conquest isn't happening? I prefer it that way to be honest.

[Ran]

Just now, Farerb said:

So does it mean that the show about Aegon's Conquest isn't happening? I prefer it that way to be honest.

They are almost certainly developing that. But they've ordered Dunk & Egg now.

[Quaithe from Asshai]

10 minutes ago, The Dragon Demands said:

GRRM is attached as a "writer" (???)

RIP WINDS

[SpaceChampion]

Presumably if they're taking 2 years to get a new season of these things they'll alternate.  If they get 3 series going simultaneously I imagine they'll learn more towards shorters season, maybe 6-8 episodes each.

[The Bard of Banefort]

2 hours ago, Farerb said:

So does it mean that the show about Aegon's Conquest isn't happening? I prefer it that way to be honest.

According to EW, the Conquest isn’t happening soon (last paragraph).

https://ew.com/tv/game-of-thrones-prequel-knight-of-the-seven-kingdoms-the-hedge-knight-series-order/?utm_campaign=entertainmentweekly_entertainmentweekly&utm_content=manual&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_term=6436f40024874700015e29e0

[BlackLightning]

Sorry this is a bad idea.

This is something that they should've done a long time ago if they wanted to do it. In my opinion, House of the Dragon should've been more like The Crown and it started way too late; it should've started with Aegon's death and the drama between Aenys, Visenya and Maegor and I've been saying this for years. Since 2019 actually.

If they want to tell the story of the Conquest, they should just make a movie. The Conquest is simply not interesting or engaging enough.

Now, if they want to 

On 4/7/2023 at 10:49 PM, RumHam said:

Not if they film it like a trashy reality show, talking head interviews and all. I'd watch that. I'm still disappointed that House of the Dragon wasn't a home renovation show about Maegor building the Red Keep where he kills everyone at the end.

Oh that would've been golden

The perfect ending to a "rise to Maegor" season would probably be Maegor murdering all the workers

 

[Lord Varys]

1 hour ago, BlackLightning said:

If they want to tell the story of the Conquest, they should just make a movie. The Conquest is simply not interesting or engaging enough.

The Conquest could work great if they really flesh out the Targaryens on Dragonstone earlier, perhaps starting with Lord Aerion's death, the subsequent wedding of the siblings, Aegon's dreams, debates what to do, their mother Valaena and the Velaryon cousins giving input, Aegon's participation in the final battles of the Century of Blood, the making of the Painted Table, etc.

This would then be contrasted with a depiction of the royal courts of all the Seven Kingdoms, showing their ambitions, plans, fears, etc.

The Conquest as such is not very interesting ... but the audience could care about the people involved there if they knew them. A good way to play things up, to make people care, would be to really flesh out Argilac the Arrogant, Harren the Black, and Mern IX Gardener. I could see Harren the Black as a really brutal and dangerous guy for all his neighbors, especially Argilac. At the same time Mern IX could also dream about his house eventually uniting all the Andal kingdoms under Gardener rule.

[Hippocras]

I really hope this show/film is not centred on the Targaryens. I am much more intrigued if it focuses on the people being conquered rather than the ones doing the conquering.

I want richly developed time with characters such as Harren Hoare, Blackwoods and Brackens, Edmyn Tully, Torrhen Stark and the last Storm King. I want it to truly feel like a foreign invasion and a cultural threat.

[Lord Varys]

3 hours ago, Hippocras said:

I really hope this show/film is not centred on the Targaryens. I am much more intrigued if it focuses on the people being conquered rather than the ones doing the conquering.

I want richly developed time with characters such as Harren Hoare, Blackwoods and Brackens, Edmyn Tully, Torrhen Stark and the last Storm King. I want it to truly feel like a foreign invasion and a cultural threat.

The Targaryen Conquest was neither a 'cultural threat' no a 'foreign invasion'. Dragonstone is much a part of Westeros politically and culturally as the other small islands around it, and the Targaryens did neither bring a different culture, language, religion, etc. nor did they actually invade with a large conquering force.

Politically, the Targaryen Conquest is a majority of the Westerosi people and lords effectively deciding they want Aegon to be their king. He could have never conquered and held so much as two kingdoms if 'the conquered' hadn't defected to him before there was much conquering. In fact, to make it make sense such an adaptation should take time to depict the misrule and conquest warfare in the independent kingdoms with a common people longing for a king who ends that shitshow.

That said - I do agree that the focus of such a show should also be on the kings and their courts. But the main characters would still be Aegon and his sisters.

[Hippocras]

1 hour ago, Lord Varys said:

The Targaryen Conquest was neither a 'cultural threat' no a 'foreign invasion'. Dragonstone is much a part of Westeros politically and culturally as the other small islands around it, and the Targaryens did neither bring a different culture, language, religion, etc. nor did they actually invade with a large conquering force.

Politically, the Targaryen Conquest is a majority of the Westerosi people and lords effectively deciding they want Aegon to be their king. He could have never conquered and held so much as two kingdoms if 'the conquered' hadn't defected to him before there was much conquering. In fact, to make it make sense such an adaptation should take time to depict the misrule and conquest warfare in the independent kingdoms with a common people longing for a king who ends that shitshow.

That said - I do agree that the focus of such a show should also be on the kings and their courts. But the main characters would still be Aegon and his sisters.

However you want to frame it.

I agree on most details in your comment, but still broadly disagree that it was not a foreign invasion. A matter of perspective. Valyrian culture was not Westerosi culture, and that basic fact underlined a great deal of the dynamics of the conquest and the century that followed. Aegon I largely adapted his ways to Westeros, but Visenya and Maegor did not. Many other Targ. associated families such as Qoherys, Velaryon etc. had very distinct habits and beliefs from mainland Westerosi. The connection between Dragonstone and Westeros at the time was much more similar to the connection between Pentos or Braavos and Westeros in the main series (300 years later) than what it eventually became. They were foreign.