HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, 8/28/22: "The Rpgue Prince"

[quote] his unloved wife

Ladywife.

Same as it ever was.

So, the new opening credits sequence is ... meh. Rivers of blood? Bleh.

I think I like this princess.

This new princess looks like Mariel Hemingway in "Manhattan," only albino.

I'm a bit confused by the credit sequence. It seems to be the King's stone miniature model of old Valyria (where the Targaryens and their dragons came from), which met its doom centuries ago. The blood seems to come out of the model city's Dragonpit, but I'm not sure what those bronze circular things are that the blood seems to trigger into movement.

I think I read somewhere those are sigils of former Targaryen rulers.

They want the 50-year-old king to marry this eight-year-old?

Rpgue? Isn't that Ypir's sister?

I don’t think this is going anywhere

She's 12, not 8.

The thing I'm missing form this is ... there are no characters with the charisma or mystery who are as interesting as Varys, Little Finger, or Tyrion.

The king is kind of dull, a weak wet noodle.

The princess is almost interesting, but mostly a blank face.

Her uncle is a one-note scenery chewing evil guy.

The hand is almost interesting.

But that's the problem. Most of the characters are "almost interesting".

So episode 2 is a six-month time jump, and we're going to have even longer time-jumps in the next few episodes? So much so that they cast the princess with an aged-up actress? Huh. Interesting choice I guess.

There’s no witty, crazy, villainous, or lustful types like the original show. It’s a world of Stannises and Jorahs. Very dull. Zzzzzzzzz

Matt Smith as Daemon is distractingly ugly in that wig.

[quote] Her uncle is a one-note scenery chewing evil guy.

He's a rogue, as the title of the episode signals.

He's not evil.

If he was a rogue, at least his character would be interesting.

Wogue One.

R15, the books and the series are different fictional worlds. On the television screen, he’s introduced buried in black shadows, he overacts, he has a bad wig—he’s one “evil” trope stacked on top of another.

King Visherysh'sh ally, the Shea Shnake, ish married to the King'sh coushin, Princhessh Rhaenysh!

[quote] On the television screen, he’s introduced buried in black shadows, he overacts, he has a bad wig—he’s one “evil” trope stacked on top of another.

All the Targaryens have bad wigs--that just came with the territory when Martin insisted they all have long white hair.

And so far Daemon's actions have not been evil--merely chaotic and provocative.

I loved how beautifully the confrontation at Dragonstone was filmed, on the long staircase from the sea to the castle in the early morning mists.

I thought the woman who played Misariya (the whore-bride of Daemon) was terrific. in the book she's shallow, and two-dimensional, but I felt genuinely sorry for her tonight. She seemed like a complex character thanks to the actress, and she suffers from Daemon's absurd posturings to impress his brother (which he realizes).

The final shot seemed to be of the Crab Feeder. Is he wearing a mask, or does he suffer from greyscale, or both?

I am not fond of the snippy actress who plays Rhaenyra, and will be glad when she's replaced by an adult actress in a few episodes.

Alicent's self-harm was a great choice for illustrating the anxieties and discomfort of a more docile and controlled character.

Rhaenys lost me when she tried to pimp out by her12 year old but Eve Best so fucking good.

This is really fucking boring, and Matt Smith keeps ruining the show with his ugliness and shit acting.

I was quite disappointed to see Matt Smith starring in this. Christ he's annoying.

Apparently I am the only one enjoying !att Smith in this. I think he’s great!

R23, what did I miss as far as Alicent “self-harming?”

When are they going to change actresses? I can’t wait to see Olivia Cook playing Alicent

Oh, there’s a “non-binary” actress named Emma D’Arcy and SHE will be playing Rhaenyra.

I might come around to Matt but it will take many episodes to get use to the shock of his Dark Crystal Puppet makeup.

r27 She's picking her nails. It doesn't seem like much, but picking nails (or scalp or skin in general) or habitually biting lips is a consequence of some underlying psychological condition.

I meant the skin surrounding her nails.

R26, you're not the only one.

I like Smith, but his voice can get chipmunky at times and I just can't take him seriously when that happens. Rewatch the scene where he first speaks during that confrontation on Dragonstone to see what I'm talking about.

Does anyone know who's in possession of the Iron Islands at this time?

This has been renewed for a second season. At the time pacing it’s going, don’t get used to the characters as this story is generational. People are going to die even if it’s of old age. No surprises, it’s all in the book this time. Tip: don’t name your cat or daughter Rhaenyra like people did with Daenerys.

My favourite characters are Otto and Alicent. It’s a game, and they’re playing it the best so far.

I’m not a fan of the opening. It reminds me too much of those scenes from vampire films where blood drops down channels to ‘awaken the ancient one’. Was that Blade? I swear the concept has been in more than one. The geographic theme of GOT was hard to beat. I would have been happy to carry on with that. Just this week, they were in Kings Landing. Dragonstone and the Stepstones.

Agreed. Driftmark was mentioned as well and that's right next to Dragonstone. The audience would understand why Corlys was able to get to Daemon so easily.

Eve Best is the standout for me. Regal and cunty. Love her. The rest of the cast is bland.

[quote] Rewatch the scene where he first speaks during that confrontation on Dragonstone to see what I'm talking about.

I had the exact same thought. He really reminded me of Joffrey in that moment.

Eve Best is divine, where she been hiding all this time?

I’m amazed someone above praised the mistress. Her acting was the worst I’ve seen on tv in years! Wretchedly wooden!

I didn't have a problem with the concubine's acting, although I did think her accent was just the thickest accent I've heard in the longest time, especially when she was speaking fast. Personally, I can easily understand the most exotic of British accents, but I was immediately wondering whether American audiences would have some difficulty understanding her at the end there before she stormed out.

She was no Shae, just as no one in this show has the wit of Tyrion.

I like the actor who plays the Sea Snake. He's got such a beautiful face, despite his age--I just like looking at him.

The talk of the girl being of the “purest Valyrian blood” was disconcerting.

Episode 1 was revoltingly violent. How is EP 2?

You would consider it worse, r44. We watch crabs devouring corpses on a battlefield by the ocean, and then one of the corpses twitches and starts screaming.

[quote] The talk of the girl being of the “purest Valyrian blood” was disconcerting.

CANCEL HER!!

[quote]Eve Best is divine, where she been hiding all this time?

I first saw her in the Edie Falco series "Nurse Jackie," where she classed up the joint.

I love Eve Best's beautiful voice.

I liked the credit sequence very much. And good to here that music again.

I think the dragon CGI is eating up a lot of budget and location CGI is scaled down. I do love those dragons though.

[quote]‘House of the Dragon’ Episode 2 Viewership Up 2% From Last Week’s Premiere Episode (10.2M Viewers)

She was fine on Nurse Jackie.

Waiting for something gay to happen feels like an eternity. When's the cute gay biracial dude come into play?

Martin loooves killing his gays like it's still 1999, so I'm not looking forward to a gay character at all. I suspect he won't be around for long even if we get one.

R53 There's a gay storyline in the show, saw behind the scenes pics. The biracial prince that's supposed to marry the main female character has a side piece male romance.

[quote] Martin loooves killing his gays like it's still 1999, so I'm not looking forward to a gay character at all. I suspect he won't be around for long even if we get one.

It's par for the course in HOTD as well.

R27 Alicent nervously picks at her nail beds to the point of bleeding. They showed it in the first episode but Otto brought attention to it this episode when she was helping him dress for Dragonstone. His tone was very critical and the actress seemed to zone out a little until Sexy Sir Cole's entrance gave her an opening to escape. She obviously does not follow her father's will blindly or from love, but she feels helpless to do more than hurt herself.

I like this show but I agree with the criticism that it is missing those more witty, charismatic characters that Throne had.

And definitely get used to the time jumps as this story is going to cover a lot of time. I see the next episode preview already has the King and Alicent Hightowers baby. There is a lot of ground to cover to set up everything.

I found the credits a let down after the iconic credits from GoT, but what are you going to do.

And people criticizing Matt Smith here when he is easily the most dynamic thing in screen is crazy to me. His lovers accent choice was the most horrendous thing I've seen. Man that took me out of the show.

Finding out Emma D'arcy is "non-binary" is not surprising. Tbh, I thought they were Hunter Schaffer in the previews.

Might it get confusing for some to see the actress playing the young Rhaenyra gone? She seems to have gained lots of fans and some even argue, the break-out star of the series. A lot might get disappointed once she's replaced.

Yes, people are already arguing on the show's sub because so many are referring to D'Arcy as young Rhaenyra's replacement, rather than the other way around. I'm sure the non-binary crap doesn't help.

We are still early on in a show that is going to run for several seasons r60. The time jump for episode 6 will be weird at first but people will get used to it, and it will be the same actor the rest of the series.

The Crown changed out the entire cast every two seasons.

Interesting breakdown of the credits: (slight spoilers)

Sapochnik out as a co-showrunner, Alan Taylor in, though as EP and director, not as co-showrunner. Says he's exhausted after three years on this project.

Damn, bummer! I really hope Sapochnik still gets to direct some of the big episodes. In my opinion, he directed some of the best GoT episodes.

He also directed two of the worst episodes, "The Bells" and "The Long Night."

I personally enjoyed The Long Night but as polarizing as those episodes are, they were still brilliantly directed.

With anyone else, I’d think something bad happened behind the scenes, but Sapochnik seems protective of his time/health in a way unusual for a high-powered person, so I can believe he’s just tired and wants to take a break.

Doing a show this huge would be exhausting as hell. David and Dan used to complain about that all the time.

It's unfortunate, but I can't blame the guy for wanting to step away and have a life again.

I recall Dan saying his mom watched the BTS featurette for the first season before the show started where he gave a quick talking head looking completely exhausted and cradling a Starbucks cup, and she told him he looked like shit and to get some sleep. Now imagine doing eight seasons of that.

Maybe he'll come back for season 3

Boring nerd fest with down right fugly leads.. He looks like a Klingon with a bad dye job. She has snake eyes and downright scary piranha mouth and teeth. Lets no even mention the Millie-Vanilli Uncle Ben character. Going with the the LOTR. At least it's a $700 million bromide.

You left an identical comment at r285 yesterday in the thread below. Please explain yourself. You running a tad low on creative juices, darling?

Jeff Bezos?

R73 Unlike yours darling , my comment is worth repeating.