House of the Dragon - GoT Prequel Series (non book reader)

Great start a lot happens in such a short hour I'm gonna steer clear of here until Tuesday morning give people a chance to see it in full.

It was alright for a first episode, I'll give it a few mode to see how it goes. Did it look a bit cheaper than GoT or was it just me?

Was wondering why two actress where credited for the role of Rhaenyra.

• Emma D'Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (voice only)
• Milly Alcock as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen

Agree with you on Smith, have never been a fan. Plus, he looked more like a Lothlorien elf than a Targaryen in this, imo.

Matt Smith is playing a grown up Joffery type with a sword and an intention to use it he will be as hated as Joffery was

I liked it. It was a nice setup episode for what looks to be a smaller Game of Thrones, which is no bad thing, considering the mess it became in the last 2 seasons.

It looks a lot more CGI heavy, but that may have been a decision made due to COVID, still it didn’t look too bad.

Most of the casting is great too, particularly Considine & Ifans. I’m not sold on Smith, I think he’s the type where I’m always very aware that he’s acting and it takes me out of it a bit, but it’s not a dealbreaker.

I thought it was a decent start. Well cast, well acted, set up the characters fairly well. It is annoying that it seems like every family has about 5 base names and everyone is just named a variance of it, which makes it difficult enough to track some characters or recognise previous mentions of them.

I thought Matt Smith was fantastic. He plays snide and scheming pretty well. The only issue I had was it nearly felt him and the young actress were being dubbed when speaking Valyerian.

The actual dragons I feel are going to be fairly boring and I hope they're used sparingly, but a show about scheming and plotting for the throne and just the machinations of that world without having to aim towards the crescendo of Night King/Mad Queen has a lot of promise.

One a week.

I turned on the subtitles in the hope they would include in the name of the person speaking. They didn't. In fact the subtitles were a mess. It wasn't always clear who was speaking.

I think the King is Viserys (like Danearys' brother from Season 1 of GOT). Matt Smith is Daemon (like Aemon who was the Maester at the Night's Watch who was also a Targaryen). The young girl is Rhaenyra (like Prince Rhaegar, who was Jon Snow's real father), and the Queen That Never Was is Rhaenys.

Even the Stark was Rickon Stark like the youngest of Ned's sons.

I know the names and family trees were all done by GRRM way back when, but it's not going to make it easy to follow.

Thought it was a pretty good opening episode, that intercut scene was pretty harrowing, haven't been made feel queasy like that since GoT S4!

Matt Smith seems to be polarising but by all accounts its a pretty polarising character so will be interesting to see how it develops

Didn't really notice a drop in quality in terms of effects, but think I was comparing it to equivalent scene setters in GoT S1 (particularly the tourney) so in that sense it's a marked improvement

Can't say I was too won over by anything that happened. It wasn't bad, just couldn't really get too excited by any of it.

Personally felt Matt Smith was the standout performer. He's a bit warped, and jaded, and petty, but he's no coward like Joffrey.

Rhys Ifans seemed well suited for his role. In a position of influence, and keeping his cards mostly close, he'll no doubt be complex enough to follow.

With regards the "Song of Ice & Fire" dream, at this point in time, would this prophecy of The Prince That Was Promised exist? If so, why would such a secretive dream be needed to drive the urgency? Or is it just the specifics of the dream that make it so meaningful, whereas the Prince prophecy is more vague?

Yep. Agree.

I'd sat that's as much a function of the decline of Boards as it is an indictment of the TV show. The site just doesn't have the users it used to.

For someone who liked GOT for a couple a seasons and then felt it was pure g1ck, I think I’ll give this a miss.

Plus this thread is buried in this sub-forum rather than the main TV one

Watched it last night and I really enjoyed it myself. I was late to the GoT party anyway (watched 6 seasons back to back) and I love that they kept the music/audio cues and the general feel of the parent show.

I think Damon was great myself, but other standouts being the King and the Hand (though you'd miss Tywin and Tyrion's sardonic attitudes). First episode sets things up well and I'm glad thay they're still focusing on the political intrigue and backstabbing rather than "ooh, Dragons!!"

Looking forward to more.

I thought it was pretty OK. Not amazing, but being fair it took me a few episodes to really get enthralled in Game of Thrones as well, but definitely solid enough as a scene setter.

Cast was good, maybe Matt Smith was a little two one-dimensional and hamming it up a bit, but no major complaints.

I enjoyed it, it was fairly gruesome in parts I thought, Got was aswell but it led up to it - I nearly turned it off at the birth (not sure why - im not squeamish) Maybe thats a compliment to the way it was acted.

The names are infuriating however.

Of course its early days, id give it a 7, maybe an 8/10 for entertainment.

Finished first episode.

If I had to sum it up.

Watchable, enjoyable, predictable.

Renewed for second season.

Second episode is excellent. So many interesting ways this could develop. Can't wait for next week. Hope they can manage to sustain pace and momentum over the course of ten episodes.

Really enjoyed that.

I dont like hightower!

It's interesting so far but I'd like the prequel part to be over soon so the real story can start.