House of the Dragon | GOT Spin-off | Season 2 June 2024

[Brainbug]

Another banger episode. That ending was intense! Really laying the groundwork for the main conflict now i feel.

[eddyxx]

Targaryen family get togethers are like the Jerry Springer show. I love it!

[Torontofan]

This is great classic mythological storytelling.

 

Give the background and set up the history, set up the family dynamics and characters.

 

Have the key event that sets off generational hatred.

 

Reminds me of the Hindu epic mahabharata.

[Brainbug]

1 hour ago, eddyxx said:

Targaryen family get togethers are like the Jerry Springer show. I love it!

 

Alabamaresteros.

[Valonqar]

Wow that was something! I only don't understand what is gained by

 

faking Laenor's death so that he and his lover could live HEA far away. That makes Daemon and Rhaenyra's future children bastards and they are suspect in "murder". Kinda like that stupidity with Jon Snow's parents where they were feigning that Lyanna was kidnapped by Rhaegar whereas in reality they were happily married and expecting.

 

I'm only tad annoyed by time jumps cause they change actors. Just as you get used to one group, they are repelaced by another. But so far, everyone - both younger and older versions - are killing it. 

[TheDarkKnightOfSteel]

I love this show so much.

 

I am so impressed and relieved that they are able to tell the story before the Targaryen war breaks out in such an interesting way. They have set up everything exceptionally and it only gets better from here.

 

And I have to make a special comment on the performances. Everyone was top notch with Paddy O Brian absolutely stealing the conflict scene. And, imo, Olivia Cooke can absolutely get the Emmy nomination next year.

[Agafin]

I'm sure we are not supposed to pick sides but I'm #teamgreen.

[Valonqar]

Aemond and Vhagar flight looked so good. I was underwhelmed by dragon-flying scenes cause green screen was so obvious (Laena and Daemon in previous episode ugh) but this was epic. 

[cookie]

The cinematography in that whole Aegon/Vhagar scene was hot trash. It was so obviously shot during the day but they darkened it so badly it was hard for me to make half the things out. Reeks of cheapness.

[Ozymandias]

I'm starting to think some people just have bad eyesight or watching on shitty setups because I didn't have an issue at all with the night scenes.  I remember people saying similar things about The Long Night episode in GOT8 and I never had an issue with seeing things in that one either.

[Liiviig 1998]

28 minutes ago, Ozymandias said:

I'm starting to think some people just have bad eyesight or watching on shitty setups because I didn't have an issue at all with the night scenes.  I remember people saying similar things about The Long Night episode in GOT8 and I never had an issue with seeing things in that one either.

Nah fucking loved this episode. But some of the scenes weren't properly visible.

 

It's the same director for long night . He can make some beautiful shots  for sure but these two eps in question have had visibility issues.  

 

Long night was plagued by this in  spades . Beautiful shots then would get plenty of zombie scenes where you would barely see shit.

 

 

[cookie]

1 hour ago, Ozymandias said:

I'm starting to think some people just have bad eyesight or watching on shitty setups because I didn't have an issue at all with the night scenes.  I remember people saying similar things about The Long Night episode in GOT8 and I never had an issue with seeing things in that one either.

I’ve watched the series on the same setup since it started. None of the other episodes had night scenes that looked as bad.

[Valonqar]

Long Night was a terrible episode, truly where S8 went off rails. The Mothership Trope idiocy was set up in Season 7 so it isn't like he weren't prepared but hoo-boy did it look shit in execution. The destiny switch from Jon to Arya was hot garbage that only satisfied Yas Queen Slay twitter. It rendered Jon's miracle resurrection pointless while destroying his whole arc. It added nothing to Arya's arc. Just pure dumb pandering and gotcha for the sake of it. 

 

Vhagar fligth was in the dark but dark covered bad greenscreen blending with the background. Something that was terribly obvious in daylight dragon riding scenes. 

Edited October 5, 2022 by Valonqar

[SnokesLegs]

6 hours ago, Ozymandias said:

I'm starting to think some people just have bad eyesight or watching on shitty setups because I didn't have an issue at all with the night scenes.  I remember people saying similar things about The Long Night episode in GOT8 and I never had an issue with seeing things in that one either.

Same here, although it helps that I watched both this episode and The Long Night in a dark room where the TV was really the only light source. I can imagine watching the episode in the daylight might be more of a struggle. Some of the scenes on the beach with Rhaenyra and Daemon definitely had the washed out look of something that had been filmed in the day and artificially darkened. I didn’t really have an issue seeing what was going on though.

 

On another note though, I was absolutely howling at the kid screaming on the back of the dragon. Not sure if that was the intent considering the music seemed to be aiming for “epic”, but it’s a top 10 GoT comedy moment for sure!

[Valonqar]

It was played for laughs. He arrogantly tried to claim a dragon and then the flight didnn't go as smoothly as he thought but then he got the hang of it, that shit is always played for at least chuckles. Jake's first flight in Avatar for example.

Edited October 5, 2022 by Valonqar

[Torontofan]

8 hours ago, Valonqar said:

Long Night was a terrible episode, truly where S8 went off rails. The Mothership Trope idiocy was set up in Season 7 so it isn't like he weren't prepared but hoo-boy did it look shit in execution. The destiny switch from Jon to Arya was hot garbage that only satisfied Yas Queen Slay twitter. It rendered Jon's miracle resurrection pointless while destroying his whole arc. It added nothing to Arya's arc. Just pure dumb pandering and gotcha for the sake of it. 

 

Vhagar fligth was in the dark but dark covered bad greenscreen blending with the background. Something that was terribly obvious in daylight dragon riding scenes. 

 

If Season 8 had the two following fixes

- Knight King vs Jon Snow epic Duel (arya could come in and kill the king still)

- The 2nd dragon dying during the battle of King Landing and making it more even affair which leads Dany going nuclear.

 

Those 2 changes alone would have allowed Season 8 been much better receieved. 

Edited October 5, 2022 by Torontofan

[Valonqar]

15 minutes ago, Torontofan said:

 

If Season 8 had the two following fixes

- Knight King vs Jon Snow epic Duel (arya could come in and kill the king still)

- The 2nd dragon dying during the battle of King Landing and making it more even affair which leads Dany going nuclear.

 

Those 2 changes alone would have allowed Season 8 been much better receieved. 

 

Arya had no business killing NK. Build up was for Jon to do it, the mystery was how. They switched the Azor Ahai for shock value and it didn't work. Jon lost his arc and his resurrection became pointless. Arya gained nothing but few Yass Queen Slaaay tweets. 

 

Yes losing a dragon during the battle of KL would have been way better and would have given a strong reason for Dany's madness. Instead, we got "Dany kinda forgot about Euron's fleet". 🤦‍♂️

[Torontofan]

7 minutes ago, Valonqar said:

 

Arya had no business killing NK. Build up was for Jon to do it, the mystery was how. They switched the Azor Ahai for shock value and it didn't work. Jon lost his arc and his resurrection became pointless. Arya gained nothing but few Yass Queen Slaaay tweets. 

 

Yes losing a dragon during the battle of KL would have been way better and would have given a strong reason for Dany's madness. Instead, we got "Dany kinda forgot about Euron's fleet". 🤦‍♂️

 

So many plot points and stories over so many seasons just ended up with zero pay off and was just based on subersion for shock value.

 

I feel this show having books to depend on is why is Good...

[Valonqar]

Yes it should be a good show if they don't stretch it for too long. The books build up the conflict nicely and the show has done it so well so far with Blacks vs Greens and how it started. The biggest mystery IMO is (book spoiler):

 

whether they will leave Daemon's fate ambigous, show the body or make the speculation that he lived and reunited with Nettles come true.

 

[Joel M]

20 hours ago, Torontofan said:

 

If Season 8 had the two following fixes

- Knight King vs Jon Snow epic Duel (arya could come in and kill the king still)

- The 2nd dragon dying during the battle of King Landing and making it more even affair which leads Dany going nuclear.

 

Those 2 changes alone would have allowed Season 8 been much better receieved. 

 

I don't believe that. People fixate on specific plot details that stick out in a bad way but even with those fixes I think it would still be a huge letdown. I was a big fan enjoying even the last 2 seasons despite the rampant corner cutting at every turn hoping that it will be all worth it if they stick the landing. But somewhere during the last 4 episodes the bubble bursts and you realise there's no landing to be stuck. They're just gonna keep cramming entire seasons worth of plot and characterisation into a couple of a scenes until the very end. John could have killed  the Night King but his ressurection would still feel pointless and the Long Night like it lasted less than a week. The dragon could die at the battle of Kings Landing and Dany would still feel like she went to sleep a worthy ruler and woke up a war criminal. And even with some distance I still love the show to this day, I even like how most of the major characters ended up in broad strokes. But the finale will always be incredibly dissapointing and there's no easy fix for that. The only real fix would be tha last 12 episodes to be another 4 seasons minimum.