House of the Dragon

[Die Hard]

18 minutes ago, tshile said:

I’ve had a great month. My new job is ****ing awesome. 60% pay raise, unlimited time off, and they have no problem spending $ as long as it’s for a good reason. Currently shopping for my new boat. 
 

you just responded to a very specific observation about one specific scene, with the idea that they can’t just bullet point things. 
 

which is a really stupid response. So I mocked you for it. 

I mean I would but you didn’t even attempt having a conversation just made some dumb comment about being soft. So let’s not pretend you’re actually interested

 

—-

 

That said - I think the intent of the thread was to focus on the series as a whole and not get stuck on one scene, and the few of you who suck at basic conversation skills 

 

—

so on that note (sorry it merged everything)

 

Oh - I used to watch everything HBO. Stopped for a while. 
 

i forgot what it’s like to have a series come out one episode at a time, a week apart. 
 

not a fan 😂 

 

the whole binge through a season in a week or two (or whatever) was something I liked much better. 
 

It’s going to be annoying with all the non-football fans watching it Sunday night, and constantly being days behind and then talking about it etc. 

oh awesome. You have some wealth. That’s a good metric for mental health.
 

Clearly you’ve got your **** together. 😂

Edited August 23, 2022 by Die Hard

[tshile]

Yeah I do pretty well in life

 

i do find it funny the guy who couldn’t handle a bit of light mocking, is questioning others mental health 

 

you seem to be real smart and got a grip on things. Maybe you could teach me. 

8 minutes ago, PleaseBlitz said:

I didn't watch the discussion afterwards so have no thoughts on that. 

It wasn’t much. Hardly worth going back to. Just a few sentences. The gist of it was they felt it was needed to let us know how hard of a decision it was. Which… whatever, I disagree and think that’s a bs explanation.
 

it’s a minor scene in what will be a long, multi-season, and well received series. 
 

im still convinced they’re gonna drag this out 8 seasons to make the most money. But I also didn’t read the books so im not even sure what that would look like. I just know they got 172 year gap to fill, although I think they said 172 years until the mad kings reign ended and I cannot recall how long after that when the original starred…

Edited August 23, 2022 by tshile

[skinny21]

11 minutes ago, tshile said:

Yeah I do pretty well in life

 

i do find it funny the guy who couldn’t handle a bit of light mocking, is questioning others mental health 

 

you seem to be real smart and got a grip on things. Maybe you could teach me. 

It wasn’t much. Hardly worth going back to. Just a few sentences. The gist of it was they felt it was needed to let us know how hard of a decision it was. Which… whatever, I disagree and think that’s a bs explanation.
 

it’s a minor scene in what will be a long, multi-season, and well received series. 
 

im still convinced they’re gonna drag this out 8 seasons to make the most money. But I also didn’t read the books so im not even sure what that would look like. I just know they got 172 year gap to fill, although I think they said 172 years until the mad kings reign ended and I cannot recall how long after that when the original starred…

Is the plan to fill in those 172 years?  I can certainly see the appeal from a money making sense, lol.

 

I went in to this with fairly low expectations (don’t know why - maybe just assumed the story wouldn’t have the foundation of the books the original series did, and that they wouldn’t put the same level of care as the first series), so I was quite surprised/impressed at the overall quality.  Still time to **** it all up though, haha.

Edited August 23, 2022 by skinny21

[tshile]

1 minute ago, skinny21 said:

Is the plan to fill in those 172 years?

I don’t follow the TV buzz scene so no idea. I just assumed the idea was the fill the void but maybe not. 
 

I guess my thought was they referred to the mad king so much in the first one, and it was really the whole setup for what the first one was about. I just assumed they would make this about that, and then yeah in episode 1 they place it 172 years before the end of his reign so… 🤷‍♂️ 

 

I did find it interesting that the idea is that Winter event was a secret and passed down by the rulers. You’d think that’s a dangerous way to handle such information - given how it’s hardly a guarantee you’d get to pass it on to the heir…

 

at some point that information has to stop being passed that way. If I recall wasn’t it really just the Winterfell people going on about Winter is Coming? 
 

although now that I think about it, I think the other groups were aware of the story but just didn’t believe it?

[Fan since a Fetus]

I really liked the episode. It will take time to build characters that you will root for or relate to in any way. 
 

As far as the scene, it would have been better handled if Weird Al was the court jester and was doing a polka in the corner.
 

Seriously, I hate movies like Saw and Hostel. The violence in those don’t feel that they have any meaning. But, I love violence in movies. But, it has to have a purpose. Typically if a scene makes me respond in any kind of emotional manner, I consider it a good scene. 
 

I used to just love the violence, but over the years I have paid more attention to the characters and their thoughts and emotions. Yeah, it was a tough scene, but in my little world, tough scenes to sit through are typically great.

[PleaseBlitz]

I don't think the plan is to fill 172 years.  I think the plan is to cover the civil war between Targaryen factions, which will probably take less than 8 years.  I do expect this series to be at least 5 seasons because money.

 

I also expect another series to explore the civil war that led up to the events of the original series, i.e., Robert's War.  That should be good for another 5-8 seasons and another $3 billion for HBO/Warner Bros and its investors. 

[ixcuincle]

people: im tired of GOT s8 it was so bad i'm done with GOT

 

sunday: record HBO viewership

[Spaceman Spiff]

Aw man, I was hoping this was some cool kung fu stuff.  

 

I'm out.  

[JamesMadisonSkins]

2 hours ago, skinny21 said:

Is the plan to fill in those 172 years?  I can certainly see the appeal from a money making sense, lol.

 

I assume that they are planning to cover the events around the Great Council (which it opened on) and the lasting effects that has on the current power struggle, which we get a glimpse of and I assume they jump ahead in time since Season 1 has 2 people who play Rhaenerys, one of whom is markedly older. So we know they jump ahead at some point in Season 1. I don't know if the years are similar, but the time from the Great Council to the "conclusion" of the story is probably similar in length from Robert's Rebellion and the conclusion of the GOT series. That said, there is a lot less source material to go on. I think this saga covers dozens of pages, if that, in the Fire and Ice book by GRRM. So I just don't know if the HBO show-writers could or are willing to fill in 8 seasons worth of material. My guess is they'll go 3 ... maybe 5 tops, but a lot will depend on how much they actually cover this season. Hell, they could cover the entire thing, we just won't know until we see the pacing of the first few episodes beyond the pilot. 

 

The show runners also have a lot of flexibility in terms of how deep they want to go. GRRM put in the framework for the story, but the character development and everything that made the GoT so compelling has to be created. What took hundreds of pages in ASOIAF to develop a character could literally be sentences of material for this story, so a lot of flexibility. 

Edited August 23, 2022 by JamesMadisonSkins

[Yohan]

Honestly wasn’t going to watch this, but after reading @tshilecomments, I had to check it out. The episode was watchable, and looks promising. I agree with tshile in the fact the writer’s explanation was BS, but I was okay with the scene itself.

 

To me going forward, it’s pretty clear this is going to be about who King Viserys named as his successor at the end of the episode and the ramifications that means for the kingdom. Also, when the friend of the princess, I think the Hand’s daughter, visited the king…gave me the creepy vibes.

[Hersh]

"The scene" was brutal and we pretty much had to FF past it. (tough pregnancy/childbirth in our house) I don't think it added anything of value from what I saw but I tend to think there is too much unnecessary gore in some movies/show that add no value to the story telling.  

 

The most ridiculous ****ing part of the commentary after was when one of the dumbasses tried to justify it by talking about what men in that situation have to go through. A woman dies a horribly painful death but lets pay homage to the men and their feelings during childbirth. STFU. I was surprised not only that the guy said it but that someone in the editing room thought it was a good clip to show. 

 

Last 20-30 minutes after "the scene" was excellent. 

9 hours ago, ixcuincle said:

people: im tired of GOT s8 it was so bad i'm done with GOT

 

sunday: record HBO viewership

 

That last season was ****ing terrible. I'm still annoyed that had the silent assassin, Arya,  yell when she jumped to kill the night king. SMH Hopefully they learned from their mistakes. Also, there is a lot of bad TV on these days so I'm sure people were like **** it, I'll watch. 

Edited August 24, 2022 by Hersh

[tshile]

31 minutes ago, Yohan said:

Also, when the friend of the princess, I think the Hand’s daughter, visited the king…gave me the creepy vibes.

Yeah I actually had to ask “wait did he just send her to …” and wife was like “… yeah….”

 

[China]

 

[TradeTheBeal!]

https://www.indiewire.com/2022/08/house-of-the-dragon-showrunners-birthing-scene-should-be-more-brutal-1234754640/

[tshile]

Interesting qualification:

”In fact, the producers were “unanimously” urged by women in their lives to make the sequence more grotesque to make it feel “horribly real” to those who have given birth.”

 

Though it does speak to the earlier post of creating awareness. 
 

reminds me of the ray rice video. 
 

event happened - people were mad but got over it

 

video leaks - intense outrage ensued 

 

I remember shaking my head that people needed a video to be released to understand how brutal a pro football player knocking a woman unconscious and dragging her body around was

 

so yeah I guess there’s a point to the idea that many people in our society are completely unimaginative and unable to understand how bad or brutal something is unless it’s on a video for them to consume 😂 

[Hersh]

It's interesting they keep trying to tie the scene to Roe when I assume they made this a couple of years ago. When you gotta keep doing PR to defend a scene, maybe that says something about the scene. They should probably say less about it and move forward. 

[tshile]

Or - it’s serving its intended purpose, to create buzz and get people talking about the show

 

I’m sure for some out there they turned it off and are done - I certainly know of people that bailed on GoT when the rape scene happened (although it was just one couple that are militant feminists.) 

 

For most it’s just a “ugh that was unnecessary” thing, not going to cause us to stop watching the show. 
 

I guess what I’m saying is that it’s a move that has more upside than down. 
 

Id expect everyone to have moved on by Sunday, just like everyone did with the rape scene. 

[PleaseBlitz]

3 minutes ago, Hersh said:

It's interesting they keep trying to tie the scene to Roe when I assume they made this a couple of years ago. When you gotta keep doing PR to defend a scene, maybe that says something about the scene. They should probably say less about it and move forward. 

 

Why on earth would they want LESS people to talk about their show?  Case in point:

 

10 hours ago, Yohan said:

Honestly wasn’t going to watch this, but after reading @tshilecomments, I had to check it out.

 

[Hersh]

23 minutes ago, PleaseBlitz said:

 

Why on earth would they want LESS people to talk about their show?  Case in point:

 

 

 

The two show runners should stop trying to explain their position. People are talking about it whether they say dumb stuff or not. 

[PleaseBlitz]

12 minutes ago, Hersh said:

 

The two show runners should stop trying to explain their position. People are talking about it whether they say dumb stuff or not. 

 

I haven't watched or read what the production team have said, I don't need television to be explained to me after the fact.  That said, from reading this thread, several people have said the scene was rough but they were ok with it, but what really made them upset was the post hoc justification.  And after HBO invested however much money into producing this thing, WHADDYA KNOW, people connected with the show keep drawing out the controversy.

 

Upset = more viewers.  It's the Howard Stern Principal.  

 

 

Edited August 24, 2022 by PleaseBlitz

[tshile]

29 minutes ago, PleaseBlitz said:

I don't need television to be explained to me after the fact. 

I do. 
 

not even trying to be funny. I struggle to pick up on nuances in plot and connect things that are part of a larger arc. 
 

the whole after-show-explanation actually helps me because otherwise I’m completely lost in conversations about the show. 
 

and it’s lot like it helped me a lot, it’s just better than the nothing I’d otherwise be working with….

[purbeast]

1 hour ago, tshile said:

For most it’s just a “ugh that was unnecessary” thing, not going to cause us to stop watching the show.

I think this is just a hot take based on the vocal minority talking about it on the internet and it being the hot topic right now.

 

I think most people who watched the show didn't even think twice about that scene and just kept watching.

 

This is literally the only place on the entire internet that I've seen discussed, and I'm a big internet dork who browses a ton of forums and talks on discord all day. 

 

And none of my friends in real life that I've discussed this show with have mentioned that scene.

[JamesMadisonSkins]

26 minutes ago, purbeast said:

And none of my friends in real life that I've discussed this show with have mentioned that scene.

 

This is really the only place that I have seen this brought up too. 

 

Something I have also noticed ... the world has changed a lot since GOT started. I'm not really a "woke crowd sucks" person, but some of the mainstream reviews I read about Episode 1 almost seemed to be trying to be extra woke and call the show out for stuff that is not conducive to the world that has been set.

 

In my mind, this was always a show set in basically medeival time with dragons. A world where women had very little power, men were brutal, and there was incest (to a certain extent). 

 

I don't turn on anything in the ASOIAF world and expect it to conform to 2022 social standards. And it just seems really strange that people are somehow expecting this, particularly to tie a birth scene into Roe v. Wade? Or to call the show out for not propping up women more? This isn't a show about 2022 power struggles. It's a fantasy world set loosely in a timeframe that in our non-fantasy world was brutal. Expect that when you turn it on. 

 

If the show continues to be a ratings smash and yes, focuses on a family that intermarries, maybe we let people just enjoy that show and not try to cast society as a bunch of incest loving people. 

Edited August 24, 2022 by JamesMadisonSkins

[tshile]

52 minutes ago, purbeast said:

And none of my friends in real life that I've discussed this show with have mentioned that scene.

None of mine are either. 
 

and even my wife and I didn’t discuss it.  But I glanced at her and could tell she felt the same way about the uncomfortableness of it all. no idea if she felt it was unnecessary. 
 

I didn’t know it was being talked about on the internet, though I suspected it might be due to the rape episode in GoT. 

i honestly didn’t even intend it to be a big discussion point - hence me padding what I said with comments about how I thought they did a great job and it’d be a great series, and subsequent post saying I think the intent was to discuss the series in general and to try to move on from the topic. 

 

I overall thought it was a minor thing and again my biggest issue was with their bull shut justification of it in the after-show interviews. 
 

as others have said - on some level it’s on-brand and should be expected. 
 

[Voice_of_Reason]

On 8/23/2022 at 7:13 AM, JamesMadisonSkins said:

I’ll be curious to see how folks approach this show. The source material, rather than being thousands of pages of unfinished books, might cover 10-12 illustrated pages. There’s a lot of depth to the story but it’s nothing like the character development in ASOIAF that happened over the course of years and thousands of pages of source material.

 

I’m also curious to understand how HBO plans to tell the story. One season? Several seasons? I’m not sure if they can develop characters over the course of the story’s arc. Depending on how deep they want to go it could be 1-2 seasons or 8 like the original. 

I’ve heard (on a few podcasts) the plan is 3-4 seasons.  They just renewed for season 2, which wasn’t a surprise.

 

I thought I saw somewhere a “game plan” of how many years each season would cover, approximately (so they didn’t give away w

Exactly where the Seasons ended.) 

 

Just watched the second episode.  I think I liked it more than the first.  Though I don’t know if that’s going to be a common position.

 

could we do the thing we did in the Star Wars thread for Obi-Wan?  No spoilers until 3-4 days after the episode and then open discussion?  It worked pretty well.  
 

Btw, I will say, I HUGELY miss Mal and Jason on Binge_Mode.  Mal and Joanna on Ringerverse are good, and Jason and his cohost are ok, but Jason and Mal together was absolute magic.  The Sonny, Sam and Frank of podcast hosts.