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polluxlm
 Rep: 221 

Re: House of The Dragon

polluxlm wrote:

I was reading a bit about the story this is based on and I must say the show is making a very poor adaptation of the plot lines.

The Crabfeeder in the book is just some Cortez type military commander. He takes over the islands and executes the pirates, then he starts charging toll for the shipping lanes. Eventually he gets greedy and charges too much and Valeryon wants a war with him.

In the show he is some type of Texas Chainsaw Massacre character and you get the impression he is capturing ships and executing the crews. In the book scenario you can see why the King doesn't want to get involved, but here? It looks like sheer madness to allow that stuff to continue, and I find it hard to believe any civilized power would support it.

Even though the lighting is horrendous, the sets and cinematography otherwise are fairly good. With a good book story to rely on they could have easily made this into a great show. I can literally see where the suits and skirts have forced in their ridiculous choices, overruling the show runners.

Rings of Power is just a bad show through and through, this show is sabotaged.

BLS-Pride
 Rep: 212 

Re: House of The Dragon

BLS-Pride wrote:
polluxlm wrote:

I was reading a bit about the story this is based on and I must say the show is making a very poor adaptation of the plot lines.

The Crabfeeder in the book is just some Cortez type military commander. He takes over the islands and executes the pirates, then he starts charging toll for the shipping lanes. Eventually he gets greedy and charges too much and Valeryon wants a war with him.

In the show he is some type of Texas Chainsaw Massacre character and you get the impression he is capturing ships and executing the crews. In the book scenario you can see why the King doesn't want to get involved, but here? It looks like sheer madness to allow that stuff to continue, and I find it hard to believe any civilized power would support it.

Even though the lighting is horrendous, the sets and cinematography otherwise are fairly good. With a good book story to rely on they could have easily made this into a great show. I can literally see where the suits and skirts have forced in their ridiculous choices, overruling the show runners.

Rings of Power is just a bad show through and through, this show is sabotaged.

Where and on what were the showrunners overruled on? Where was this mentioned? GRRm is pretty pleased with thr show so far. Think that says a lot. Most books readers like the show. Few gripes about a change here or there. But again its a different medium. So far its a beast for ratings. Gaining more each week. It's been an entertaining show for sure. You just seem hung up to hate it. Calling people ugly before in a earlier post. Like what? Lol.

I do agree with rings tho.  Couldn't make it through one episode.

Randall Flagg
 Rep: 139 

Re: House of The Dragon

I think it's fair to criticize the show for decisions done exclusively for shock value.  What did making the Crabfeeder a torturer, crucifying men to be eaten by crabs do to advance that story?  Polluxlm's right, this change only accomplishes making Viserys look even weaker and more stupid. 

Introducing black characters is fine, I couldn't give two shits.  But if you do it solely to be more "diverse", at least make the effort to change the story to accommodate the problems that creates.  Rhaenys is half Baratheon and has black/brown hair in the books.  The show chose to show all "true" Valyrians as having white hair.  Corlys has it, as do both his children.  They made Rhaenys have it.  Viserys, Daemon, Rhaenyra and all of Alicent's children have white hair.  The only ones who don't have it are Rhaenyra's children.  They made white hair the defining feature of Valyrian blood, so much to the point that even when a Baratheon and Hightower mate with a Targaryen, the offspring have white hair.  Baratheon blood being "powerful" was a central theme in the original show.  So with all this importance on white hair, they still have Rhaenyra's kids have brown hair like Harwyn.  All this change results in is making Viserys look like a complete and utter moron.  Comically stupid to the point it contradicts the character they created for Corlys.  Why the fuck would Corlys ally with Viserys?  His wife has a claim, his children are dragon riders, as is his wife.  He controls the navy, and we know Daemon marries Laena.  Why would he ally with this stupid, weak ass version of Viserys?

They're starting to do the shit they began in Season 5 of the show where they took a story arc and either butchered it or subbed in their significantly lower value fan fiction version.  No one who has read the books can say the show version of Dorne was in anyway an improvement and not a significantly poorer story than the one the book has laid out.  I get it changes need made, but they had a blueprint and "Bad Pussy" is what they chose to give us. 

It's not a compelling story, and they're making the characters too extreme to be anyway likeable.  There are no Starks until the end of this story, so they need some kind of good guy to balance out the narratively bad ones.  Everyone save Alicent absolutely is monstrous in this show, and they seem to be hell bent on making the audience dislike her if they don't already. 

It's entertaining, well acted and gorgeous to view.  But I like view these high level programs for the story more than anything else, and when you have a solid blueprint and choose to put garbage in its place, it's not "hating".  It's taking serious the source material, recognizing that changes need to be made, and appreciating the turns the show writers have taken.  And being puzzled and perplexed when people who have read and want to honor the same material you both enjoy by doing something that any serious group of writers should have identified as a problem.  I think it's interesting as fuck that Helaena is probably having green dreams.  I'm ok with Criston Cole actually sleeping and being spurned by Rhaenyra.  I think these are two great changes and am interested to see how that influences future events.  But that doesn't mean when they make characters impossibly stupid or naieve, everything is peachy keen.  Ned was the classic, honorable, good-natured hero.  And he got his head cut off within months of coming to King's Landing.  We've seen this bumbling buffoon rule peacefully and successfully for 20 years.  That's not the message GRRM wrote.

polluxlm
 Rep: 221 

Re: House of The Dragon

polluxlm wrote:
BLS-Pride wrote:

Where and on what were the showrunners overruled on? Where was this mentioned? GRRm is pretty pleased with thr show so far. Think that says a lot. Most books readers like the show. Few gripes about a change here or there. But again its a different medium. So far its a beast for ratings. Gaining more each week. It's been an entertaining show for sure. You just seem hung up to hate it. Calling people ugly before in a earlier post. Like what? Lol.

I do agree with rings tho.  Couldn't make it through one episode.

Pretty much everything I can imagine. They brought De Palma in to do a tv show and he was horrified at the interference from suits and skirts. This is a legend with all the credentials you ever need, and still they did not trust him to make some film for them without inserting their own "brilliance". How do you think the up and coming creators of this are being handled?

I notice this shit because I still live in 2002. The cinematography and the sets are decent because this is HBO and they've been in the game for a long time. Not as good as it could be, not as good as GOT, but certainly vastly superior to the amateurs over at Amazon who are clearly showing their lack of experience running a show. The writing has an air of respectability to it, you can tell there is a real author like George at the bottom of it, but that's where it ends.

The interference is when they take that pirate story which is good enough as it is and just as adaptable to the screen and they turn it into something silly, something certain viewers will find ridiculous. And there's no need for it, you can achieve everything you want to achieve by doing it straight. I don't see why showrunners who are otherwise competent would resort to that. Or why they would have characters say lines that belong on "Girls" not Medieval times or George Martin's universe. Either the Armanis are forcing these changes or the showrunners know the deal and meet their demands at will.

Why do I hate that? Because it's like listening to Welcome to the Jungle and suddenly instead of Axl you hear Ed Sheeran.

Randall Flagg
 Rep: 139 

Re: House of The Dragon

I enjoyed the season overall.  It did some really stupid things towards the end, especially with Rhaenys just kool-aiding through the floor, killing hundreds, and choosing not to end the civil war before it started, but overall I was very pleased with what they did.  Was very excited to see Aemond and Lucerys face off in the sky over Storm's End and really liked the change they made where the dragons were uncontrollable and did what they wanted to do.  Begs the question why Rhaenys's dragon didn't pick up on her emotions and nuke the Greens, but I'll let that one slide.  Maybe we'll get lucky and the show will introduce Cregan Stark much earlier than in the book.

polluxlm
 Rep: 221 

Re: House of The Dragon

polluxlm wrote:

Haven't watched the last couple of episodes. On the plus side they cut down on the wokeness when they switched the Rhaeneyra actress. These actor changes have actually been quite good. Most of them fit their previous iteration look wise, and as characters they tend to get better. Aemond is a good example and his brother too. Even manged to find some good looking people to fill these roles.

An ever persisting problem for me is the tendency of the show to hinge story lines on unbelievable or irritating premises. The entire succession crisis and family turmoil which so upsets the King is entirely of his own doing, and it is based on his failure to do what he started the show obsessed with doing. He along with the rest of the realm wanted a male heir. When he finally gets a son, he passes him over for a daughter with no apparent wish to rule and which will guaranteed start a civil war. If Rhaeneyra had showed any real desire to rule it could be palpable, but as it stands you get a feeling the characters are forced into conflict because the plot demands it.

The murder of nobles is portrayed much too casually. It's as if killing a high born and getting away with it is as easy as punching out a homeless person. Demon kills a princess right outside her castle. The explanation we are given is that she is a strong independent woman and she don't need no man when she goes out to ride, which in this world makes no sense at all. There would be guards near and far. If she really decided to do something stupid like that, they would send out people to shadow her at a distance, if even allowing her to do it at all. It is their heads if something happens. At the very least Demon would be spotted in the general area and there would be questions what he was doing there. But we can't pass up an opportunity to project 2022 into Medieval times.

The biggest flaw in this show though is the lack of fun. You could never put a Bronn into this world. He'd be executed for interfering with their depressions.

Randall Flagg
 Rep: 139 

Re: House of The Dragon

Digging this season so far, though I don't have a clue what their endgame is with Daemon and the Weirwood tree influence.  My favorite YouTube Preston Jacobs was lampooned for over a decade for claiming the weirwood throne at the vale was the cause of Robin Arryn's seizures, and the show took that idea and ran with it. 

Really really like what they're doing with Aemond. 

Hidden Text:

In the book he came across to me as the ultimate swordman and military man.  He was portrayed as calm and collected, a better version of the Rogue Prince Daemon.  Not here.  He's power hungry like most Targaryen's, and is as ruthless as Daemon ever was, but he has fucking Vhagar.

My only issue is that they made Aegon seem overly dumb.  In season 1, the Valyrian dragon tamers scolded the other children for not being as devoted and connected to their dragon bond as Aegon.  He was the example of someone who naturally and enthusiastically put in the work to bond and train their dragon.  Then they have riding his nuke just like Dr. Strangelove as he bumbles into battle. 

The director said the kiss between Mysaria and Rhaenyra wasn't planned, Emma Darcy just adlibbed it.  Kind of weird.  Both Dany and Cersei have several lesbian encounters in the book, but the show for all its tits and ass glory never used it.  Weird to force it in here and detract from the fact Rhaenyra is supposed to be losing her shit and showing all the mad Targaryen traits, but just like in season 1 they seem to want to force a girl boss on us for team black. 

mitchejw
 Rep: 130 

Re: House of The Dragon

mitchejw wrote:

Interesting take Flagg...house of dragon is the only show my wife and i make it a point to watch these days. A rare shared interest in a tv show that we haven't had since the original game of thrones...we can only watch so many Gordon Ramsey reruns.

Despite the fact that I've always enjoyed the game of thrones series, there have been a number of loose ends that I never really fully understood. But usually, I just brush it off.

One of the things that I do suffer from are these minor characters that seemingly only get introduced for a sex scene later on. I agree, the kiss doesn't seem to make any sense. But being horny and your uncle/husband being gone for an extended and indefinite amount of time might do strange things to you.

I did like the scene wkere food and goods were just randomly showing up on the shores of king landing while their population was starving and poor. All the things that followed basically showed how desperate the citizens of kings landing have become.

The Daemon stuff is also confusing me to some degree. Whatever he's doing in that broken down castle is forcing him to confront his demons. Daemons demons? lol

In my opinion, that's something he had to do in order to bend the knee which is what I expect he's preparring to do.

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