All Series Must Die (Which Is Why There Are New Ones) -- The Game of Thrones Series Spinoffs

there was a scene posted as a preview on the hot d official twitter that featured the adult actors for laenor and rhaenyra and they both seemed pretty good, with the laenor actor seeming like a seismic improvement lol

finally, the extended john mulaney armor fetish softcore we've all been hoping for

"It was about the struggle in every way: the struggle to get the armour off, the struggle of him to betray his vows... That's how I wanted to pitch it," he said. For Frankel it was all about the integrity of the scene, and he was dedicated to making every aspect as realistic as possible, even if it took months of forethought to accomplish.

"For even a world-quality squire, you've got 10 minutes to get the armor off. Let's say five, maybe at best. There's no way Rhaneyra and Cole are gonna take that armour off in 10 seconds. So I was like, 'Well, you have to have that in,'" he said. "These are all the things I really cared about, 'cause they take away this sort of, to my mind, archaic sexual sex scenes that have existed for so long in television and film, and make it feel real."

"a world-quality squire"!

it would have been more realistic if they were both complaining about the awful smell of his sweaty high fantasy body as the pieces of armor came off one by one

(Alicent walks to the window and throws it open in desperation. Criston proceeds to remove the cod piece)

Ok, this show rocks.

Fantastic "one-take" opening act this week and *so* much politicking

Also lol at "Well he's a twat"

yeah this week's episode was excellent. they handled the time jump pretty gracefully imo, and the characters are coming into sharper definition each week.

kinda darkly funny to see daemon become a widower anew in consecutive episodes

lol no, this episode was terrible - dumb characters, barely-there motivation, actors without charisma. what a step backward.

It wasn’t great but I love Olivia Cooke cos I always love Olivia Cooke.

They really need to dial it back with the nighttime filter on everything

Ok, this is getting fucking crazy

Strong shades of Joffrey's humiliation by Arya in GoT s1.

i've been kinda bummed this season/show, like plenty of soap opera and palace intrigue or whatever but not enough big momentous battles, but have to say things have ramped up quite nicely.

were there any momentous battles in season 1 of Game of Thrones?

I don't remember. But maybe with the expanse of things it felt more clearly heading there? Anyway getting that feeling now at least.

I was a little confused to see Otto Hightower back as the Hand, but I guess he was reinstated since last ep?

Larys Strong engineered the death of his brother and father, making room for Otto to be invited back

I'm pretty sure the action in season 1 of GoT was roughly the same or less, it was mostly putting the pieces in place for the war that erupts in season 2, the truly big battle coming at the end of that season.

xp - I get the why and how of the machination, just wasn't sure it was a given he'd be back

xp yeah the majority of the first book and series is build up

xp

I liked how impressed he was by the goings on, but I was disappointed that the writers didn't have the guts to make a character intone ponderously "so now the dance of the dragons commences..."

I am anti-big battle scenes. The last few seasons of GoT had a lot of them. It didn’t fix what was going wrong with the show. I like episodes that are entirely filled with people talking. Or in the case of that last episode, everyone at the wake/funeral suspiciously watching each other

a couple things from this episode that didn't quite sit right with me:

1. Aemond seemed rather lively about 10 minutes after having his face utterly sliced to pieces. You'd think he'd need to chill out for a bit after losing an eye and getting massive disgusting stitches. That must be painful!

2. The fact that he brazenly stole a whole-ass dragon was rather quickly forgotten amidst the outrage over him (accurately) calling the little brown head boys bastards.

was the picture too dark for anyone? i watched on my ipad and it was 100% fine, but i'm seeing lots of complaints about it from so-called tv critics that are about to turn me into the joker!

it was extremely dark for me starting near the end of the funeral and then through the dragon exploits

xp to moodles for number 2, you can't really "steal" a dragon. in the books at least, each dragon can only be ridden by one person at a time. once the dragon's rider dies, the dragon can be claimed by anyone with targaryen blood. after aemond successfully mounted and rode vhagar, the dragon is bound to him now and won't accept any other rider. laena's girls use the word "stole" because their mom rode vhagar their whole lives, and the younger daughter hasn't claimed a dragon yet. laena would likely have wanted the dragon to pass to her daughter, but it doesn't really work that way

I mean, I get this, but on the other hand he did steal it for all intents and purposes, but thanks for explaining anyway

right, i mean laena's daughters have a reason to be pissed, the king is a dragonlord who claimed his own dragon in a similar way years ago. he's also very established as an expert on turning a blind eye to things.

Oh, too soon

the one good thing abt the persistent gloom filter is i had an eye procedure today & my eye was dilated way to fuck & bc of light sensitivity this show was about the only thing i could comfortably watch lol

rename this show House of Furtive Glances w Occasional Dragons, god that funeral reception was interminable

oh and re prev episode: i’ll take a hard no on the squelching-noise foley work for any more birth scenes, god that opening birthing scene was ott it sounded like she was taking a shit!

It must be true

Give It Up For The King Of Fantasy: George R.R. Martin Just Announced That Instead Of Finishing The Game Of Thrones Books He’s Just Gonna Stay Rich AF And Let These Broke Boys Worry About Dragons https://t.co/aZKr3Iv1af

— ClickHole (@ClickHole) October 3, 2022

Why does everyone have to have the same names in this and GoT, fuck its as bad as Elden Ring with its Godfreys and Godefreys and Marikas and Miqellas and Marigolds and Marriots.

(and yes I'm aware thats also GRRMs doing!!!)

agree its the most annoying part

Even the fact all the same Houses existed hundreds of years prior is a bit of a side eye for me but ok, I get they get passed down and tradition etc but really? Theres no change in fashion, we're just calling everyone Joffrey and Aemon?

I feel like there's some nods to it being a different era — that carriage they ride in doesn't look like anything designwise in GOT — but definitely true it overall feels kind of generic.

ugh i fkn hate that carriage it looks like something out of harry potter it is so shit

just wait til daemon and rhaenyra have kids and name them…aegon and viserys

oh and that incesto-wedding was the creepiest shit ever lol

the repeated names are annoying but if anything grrm actually spiced up the variation in names a bit from the real middle ages. i remember wolf hall where every character was named either thomas or jane

yeah thats v true please god no more anns

Despite all the endless sound alikes, the ones that irk me the most are Luke and Jace. Like wtf, why in the world would Rhaenyra pop out a couple of brats with ugly generic 2000s names?

yeah jace was v triggering, total bogan kid name

The new heir to the throne has been born! And their name....is Madison!!

*light clapping*

um it's spelled maedysyn

Ok I’m not even finished this episode but the lighting was a total joke. Literally couldn’t even see if there was incest happening.

It was like the night in the daytime crappy filters on old 70s films. Why didnt they just film at night? It *was* nighttime right? I mean it started off qute bright. And there were stars later.

https://www.vulture.com/article/why-house-of-the-dragon-episode-7-driftmark-was-so-dark.html

https://i.imgur.com/uYRVqak.png

I have to say I was able to see everything. Maybe it’s my decently setup plasma screen but I never felt like it was impossibly dark. RIP plasma screens.

We have frequent problems with way-too-dark shows esp when set indoors at night/in night scenes outside, and AppleTV seemed to be the worst offenders (looking at you, "Invasion"). BUt yeah this wasnt DARK, it was just filtered really strangely so it looked like "daytime but someone put the wrong film stock in".