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

forks fwiw i thought the first episode veered closely, at times, to what you're describing, but i've been really impressed by where it's gone since. have you watched the last couple episodes?

my favorite GoT season was 1, my second favorite was 2, third favorite was 3, etc. every time a new season came out, i would go back and do a grand rewatch, starting at S1E1, and every single time i thought "they nailed this show right at the beginning"

the last few episodes of hotd remind me a lot of that warm fuzzy season 1 feeling. the last episode, in particular, was absolutely gripping, and it was mostly a series of long, intense dialogue between pairs of characters.

i've watched every episode and just haven't been into it. i found the dialogue in this episode tedious. i'll quit complaining now, don't think it's for me. will pipe up if it shifts from background watch to something i'm actually enjoying but i really think that's gonna be second season when they can calm the fuck down.

yeah idk how they could've adopted a patient approach to this story, given the scale of the narrative they've chosen to adapt. chapter 1 of the story takes 30 years, while the next 4-5 chapters will cover a period of 3.

i don't know the material well enough to speak to that, i just know that we're being asked to give a shit about political machinations, personalities, relationships and frailties that I don't have any engagement with but they're supposed to carry weight. the king in waiting's consort was just bludgeoned to death and i don't care about him or the king in waiting or the queen or the current king who has been withering away at mach speed over his train set since we started the dang thing. it's not taking the time i need to connect with anyone before we have to rush forward to the next plot point imo.

it's not taking the time i need to connect with anyone before we have to rush forward to the next plot point imo.

yeah, i think that's a very valid criticism. ser criston's character, for one, goes through _a lot_ of stuff in episodes 4 and 5, leading to narrative payoffs that arrive before the viewer has gotten a full sense of the character.

xp the show is five episodes old

xps to gyac, i agree with basically all of that, i come not to praise caesar but to bury him.
more accurately should have said "that GoT had at its best"

xp the show is five episodes old

Its best was almost all from the source material, the drop in quality was huge and the show has zero rewatch value for me as a result.

apparently we get whole new actors for Rhaenyra and Alicent in the next episode

Timeskip Alicent is played by Olivia Cooke, who I’ve liked in the recent remake of Vanity Fair. It’s some great casting.

https://wwd.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/olivia-cooke-as-alicent-hightower.jpg?w=640

I'm going to miss Milly Alcock, tbh. I wasn't sold on her at first, but she's really helped sell the role for me.

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