Draven

I actually thought this was more confusing than the GoT pilot, but I'll concede that I had read the books multiple times at that point. That being said, I was thrown every time they said a familiar House name and would spend a few seconds thinking about if I knew that name or not. And also trying to fit this into the timeline I am already familiar with.

The show looked fine but it's a prequel for a pretty basic event (Daenerys is eventually born) and we already know the outcome as well - and the outcome is that this family is terrible. So I'm not sure how invested I will be in a story of the shitty Targaryen family. I'm not even sure who the hero is supposed to be here. But it's something to watch, anyway.

Decker

I thought that at least was pretty obvious.

Josh-da-man

Presumably, this is going to cover The Dance of the Dragons (not to be confused with the novel A Dance with Dragons). And I'm guessing we'll be getting some kind of time jump soon; I can't imagine they'd drag the events of the first episode out too long.

For those curious about where this is all headed -- and it shouldn't be too hard to figure out from the first episode -- The Dance of the Dragons (not being too specific about any outcomes) is

GatorDeb

Whoa I read the spoiler and I hadn't read the books. How do we get there?

dex14

There has to be a time jump because Olivia Cooke is playing the older Alicent.






Josh-da-man

Yeah, that's one thing that sort of confuses me about this -- the ages of the actors.

I'm not familiar with any of the Rhaenyra and Alicent actresses except for Olivia Cooke, but the young playing woman playing young Alicent looks a lot like her.

Also not sure if they're massaging the timeline or what, but, I think that, in the book timeline, the events of the first episode take place around 101 AC, while the Dance of the Dragons happens around 130 AC.

And Daemon should be in his early twenties during the first episode, and then closer to fifty when the Dragons dance, which makes Matt Smith about the right age for the older Daemon, but he's not pulling off twenty-one in this episode.

I suspect that they might do time jumps every episode, by about five-ten years or so, until they get to the Dance.

MrX

GatorDeb

Been down the rabbit hole on Dance of the Dragons. Apparently this series is based on a book I thought it was an original spinoff based on GOT. Half of me wishes I had seen it unspoiled but the other part can't get enough of the story and can't wait to see it played out. Heck of a story.

Gunde

Really?
I thought it was extremely straight forward. King wants son, only has daughter, so brother is heir. Brother is loose canon, causing demand for different heir. King goes against tradition and names daughter heir. What was confusing?

dex14

I was totally confused as to why none of the relatives were fucking each other!

MrX

Viserys and Aemma were cousins so that should lessen the confusion

Gunde

That makes sense. I'm sure it will come before the finale

Josh-da-man

The Targaryens always end up fucking each other. It's why the gods flip a coin when on is born...

Josh-da-man

I was digging around AWOIAF and looking up the ages of the various characters.

Like Game of Thrones before it, it looks like they've aged up the characters and tweaked the timeline. (In the books, Jon Show and Robb Stark were only around fourteen, and all of the other Stark kids even younger. Ned and Cat would have only been in their mid-thirties despite being played by actors in their late 40s/early 50s.)

Based on my exhaustive research, the events covered in this episode took place in Year 105. Viserys I would have been 28 years old, Aemma Arryn-Targaryen would have been only 23, Rhaenyra Targaryen would have been 8, Daemon Targaryen 24, and Alicent Hightower 17. Everyone, except Alicent and maybe Daemon, look twice as old as they should.

The Dance of the Dragons took place between 129 and 131, so I wonder if House of the Dragon won't push it down the timeline by a decade or so.

Draven

Mostly the random names, including some that sounded kind of familiar but I know aren't people we've met yet but still make me think I should know them, a lot of history right off the bat, the succession stuff without any real setup of who the two candidates were and why it was decided the way it was, how everyone is related (took most of the episode for me to work out that the friend of the main girl was the Hand's daughter). Just dumping you right into a place that has been somewhat setup already but it's been a while - you might not remember what Harrenhal is, for example. I just felt very discombobulated through the first half - like "this is Westeros and that's the Iron Throne but you know none of these people". My wife even asked "have there always been swords like that sticking up around the throne?" and I said no but I have no idea why those are there. Lots of things like that in here.

Again, I was far more familiar with the GoT books but the Stark children are such an easy entry point into the series - I knew who to root for from Day 1.

johnnysd

I thought it was pretty decent. I thought the other series they started about Old Valyria was more interesting but seems they decided to stay in the GOT lane as much as possible.

fujishig

I mean that certainly seems like it was coming...

I'm glad the ratings were big for the first episode because it doesn't feel like they really got to the meat of the plot yet, or at least the time skip. Seems pretty straightforward and as someone else said, we don't really need prequels for everything, but I'm happy to enter into that universe again. Like the original series, the nudity and sex is really just gratuitous, you could probably cut those out and even the dismemberment and lose very little.

Hightower getting his daughter to "comfort" the King (and to cement his legacy) and Raenyra being kind of leered at by her cousin when they're both supposed to be like 15 or 16 I guess reflects the era and how the women were looked upon but man.

I did have a question about the joust. Watching the little behind the scenes thing after the show (it's weird that it's just tacked on at the end of the episode, at least on Max, I was fooled into thinking something significant would happen after the credits), the writers of this show came up with the tournament on their own, I don't think it was based on anything in the books. But considering there are sons of like very very important people in that tournament, was it really just nothing if someone came out and bashed another knight's head in? Just the risk of entering the tourney and not giving up? Like if Daemon didn't submit it would've been cool for Cole to just bash his head in?

redrum

Fuck this show. I’m ready for “Snow”.

*still watches this show*

JTH182

I haven't watched anything "live" in so long I was like "what are the odds they all started streaming at the EXACT same time?"

DJariya

Renewed.

Twitter

Decker

That's not shocking. 😉
I wonder how many seasons they anticipate this story running.

dex14

DJariya

I'm going to assume we shouldn't expect a 2nd season until 2024.

fujishig

Also, the relationship between Alicent and Rhaenyra in their youth is pretty much made up by the show, right? I can understand why they aged Rhaenyra up (and also why they aged up all the characters in the original show).

MrX

Yeah, Alicent spent her time helping King Jaehaerys when Otto was named hand and there was only 3 years between him dying and