House of the Dragon (Game of Thrones) Thread

[FLiam]

Obviously it's the same composer, but a lot of the score for that episode sounded very Westworld to me.

[Adam]

Just watched it, really enjoyed it.

Spoiler

My jaw dropped when Arya appeared out of nowhere. They did that really well. I don't personally agree with the thought that the jeopardy wasn't present the whole time, because it certainly was for me. There wasn't any minute of the show where I was like "good guys gonna win/good guy here will not die". When they were all being overwhelmed I had to reassure myself that with three episodes left, there was no way literally everyone would die...but it did feel as if everyone might just die, somehow.

Theon's was the most emotional death for me, they wrapped his arc up so perfectly and I really felt something in that moment when he stood and faced the Night King. He, Jorah and Brienne were my top 3 "So Very Dead In This Episode" picks (I didn't feel Edd was even worth considering, he blatantly re-emerged to become fodder) so when Jorah died I was prepared for it, but even with the expectation of Theon dying, I was still moved. That's a good indicator of how well it was done.

I did enjoy the whole Berric saves Arya - Melisandre tells Arya what she needs to know - Arya kills Night King - Melisandre dies having served her purpose - plot moves. That was a satisfying wrap-up for the entire destiny/fate/Lord of Light stuff and I thought it was well done. I just hope we get some good stuff with the Hound in the remaining episodes now.

It was too dark, but if I'd been able to watch this episode at night I doubt I'd have noticed.

All in all I thought it was a great episode. Not my favourite ever, but it doesn't need to be. And I'm excited to see what comes next.

Ooh, bonus question..

Spoiler

Were there any other easter egg zombies when the crypt wights started attacking? Cos that shot of Maester Luwin is awesome.

 

[Azazel]

Spoiler

I really think Melisandre realized she was wrong about finding the Prince who was Promised and that she was just following R’Hllor because she thought she had seen his power in action.

Then she saw a darkness in Arya, she saw the one true god, Death.  Death has many faces and R’Hllor was one of them.  That’s why she drops the Lord of Light stuff and inspires Arya with “what do we say to the God of Death?” Instead.  She was always looking to the flames for vision and not into the darkness.

 

[DMN in the House]

8 minutes ago, Azazel said:

  Hide contents

I really think Melisandre realized she was wrong about finding the Prince who was Promised and that she was just following R’Hllor because she thought she had seen his power in action.

Then she saw a darkness in Arya, she saw the one true god, Death.  Death has many faces and R’Hllor was one of them.  That’s why she drops the Lord of Light stuff and inspires Arya with “what do we say to the God of Death?” Instead.  She was always looking to the flames for vision and not into the darkness.

 

Honestly, what was up with her saying 'Valar Morghulis' to Greyworm and him responding?Made me think something was up there.

[GhostMachine]

2 hours ago, Adam said:

Just watched it, really enjoyed it.

  Reveal hidden contents

My jaw dropped when Arya appeared out of nowhere. They did that really well. I don't personally agree with the thought that the jeopardy wasn't present the whole time, because it certainly was for me. There wasn't any minute of the show where I was like "good guys gonna win/good guy here will not die". When they were all being overwhelmed I had to reassure myself that with three episodes left, there was no way literally everyone would die...but it did feel as if everyone might just die, somehow.

Theon's was the most emotional death for me, they wrapped his arc up so perfectly and I really felt something in that moment when he stood and faced the Night King. He, Jorah and Brienne were my top 3 "So Very Dead In This Episode" picks (I didn't feel Edd was even worth considering, he blatantly re-emerged to become fodder) so when Jorah died I was prepared for it, but even with the expectation of Theon dying, I was still moved. That's a good indicator of how well it was done.

I did enjoy the whole Berric saves Arya - Melisandre tells Arya what she needs to know - Arya kills Night King - Melisandre dies having served her purpose - plot moves. That was a satisfying wrap-up for the entire destiny/fate/Lord of Light stuff and I thought it was well done. I just hope we get some good stuff with the Hound in the remaining episodes now.

It was too dark, but if I'd been able to watch this episode at night I doubt I'd have noticed.

All in all I thought it was a great episode. Not my favourite ever, but it doesn't need to be. And I'm excited to see what comes next.

Ooh, bonus question..

  Hide contents

Were there any other easter egg zombies when the crypt wights started attacking? Cos that shot of Maester Luwin is awesome.

 

To answer your question:

Not that I know of. But one of the zombies shown on the ground at one point (I'm not sure when) was played by Chris Stapleton. I'm not sure if he's one of the zombies the Night King raised when Jon was chasing him, or one shown earlier around the time of the fire pit.

[Your Mom]

I just saw a thing from the cinematographer saying that basically it's my own dumb ass fault that it was too dark and that "you don't need to see everything to enjoy it"

 

Fuck off

[Bobfoc]

Might as well make Game of Thrones a radio drama in that case.

[Schlitzbrille]

16 minutes ago, Bobfoc said:

Might as well make Game of Thrones a radio drama in that case.

You joke, but I'd be on that so hard as long as it's read in the manner of a stereotypical 1930's radio announcer.

[livid]

55 minutes ago, The Chiksrara Special said:

I just saw a thing from the cinematographer saying that basically it's my own dumb ass fault that it was too dark and that "you don't need to see everything to enjoy it"

 

Fuck off

He's actually not wrong but it's not necessarily your fault either. A ton of TVs aren't calibrated properly or have settings on them that affect the picture and creates a disconnect between what their intent was and what you're actually viewing. It's become such an issue that directors have started to talk to TV manufacturers about it. 

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/9/12/17849560/tv-motion-smoothing-reference-mode-nolan-anderson

That said, sometimes they're really intense and over the top about it. 

 

Edited April 30, 2019 by livid

[MDK]

On 29/04/2019 at 03:24, GoGo Yubari said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Dolorous Edd has passed away. RIP u will live on forever. Cant believe it. I wanna run to u. Really cant believe this. @

 

He was on probation!

That is a little joke for the Ideal fans on the board.

[Mick]

[MDK]

[FLiam]

A few people I know have that "motion-smoothing" or "Film mode" on their TV's as they're on by default and it drives me nuts. I don't understand what the point of it is, it makes everything look unwatchable and looks like things are in fast-forward. I try and tell people to switch it off, but they don't listen. 

It's a daft feature that far too many people don't notice, somehow.

[Ruki]

Motion smoothing is the worst.

[gunnar hendershow]

My TV handled the episode well but this is also intended to look like a Caravaggio painting so there's only so much I'm supposed to see anyway. I saw *just enough* to know what was going on in the foreground while seeing faint hints of chaos in the background, feels like the overall intention. The show has always wanted to look natural so that means when it's night, it's night. But don't get me started on modern TVs because they really are designed for one thing and one thing only (sports), and everything else suffers as a result.

I have *many* thoughts on the episode (almost all positive) as someone who has been involved in this story for half of his life.

The Night King storyline was never going to be the final boss in the show, and same for the Others in the books. It was always built up for Cersei from the beginning, she's the person we want to see suffer the most since everyone else's suffering is because of her and her family. The very, very main storyline beats I feel like are carried between the books and the show, such as Cersei being the end boss. Plenty is different between the two, and even as the show was coming out they started cutting characters are stories. Frankly they had too, adapting the end of Storm of Swords and then Feast/Dance as they were would have made for an overly bloated show. Different mediums require different types of storytelling.

I think overall GRRM hasn't actually finalized what his last 2? books are gonna look like because he's put so much in motion that it's a real nuisance to wrap it up without just doing through the, at this point, expected method of just killing off people to get them out of the way. His outline he sent to Benioff & Weiss probably looked more like a few major points than some detailed 100 page description. Even if it was, he's absolutely rewriting it a dozen times at least before the books come out. The end of the books will look a lot different than the end of the show, but I think the very major points will all still be there. As I said when they started changing stuff in the show, i.e. removing Lady Stoneheart "It's easy to see now what storylines are more side plots in the books since they aren't even making it into the show".

I think the fact that Arya, with all her training, was able to move through the shadows was the only way to kill an all-powerful being. He was expecting Jon, and it's established he's more powerful than man. Bran, Melisandre, and Beric at least all knew it would be Arya. And they did everything they could to get her going there. The entire Prince Who Was Promised prophecy has always been too read into. The deal with prophecies is that they're both right and misinterpreted at the same time. But one thing I really am wondering is how long they knew Arya would play such a big role in this battle in particular. It had been foreshadowed, rather deliberately, many seasons before. One line of dialogue being repurposed for this is a coincidence. But Melisandre herself said "brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes" and that feels very deliberate. It's all very interesting to me. The green eyes everyone is taking as being Cersei, and it wouldn't surprise me. She's trained to do the actual killing after all.

[Your Mom]

I just saw too that maybe part of the problem was I was watching it through the Amazon app. Does that make sense to you guys?

[Bobfoc]

I've read about people having those problems on all sorts of services. I think a lot of it depends on how well your television displays different shades. OLED televisions are ideal for that sort of thing, but they're also very expensive. I do wonder if they'll tinker with the image when they release the DVDs and Blu-Rays.

[Gazz]

Two points
 

Spoiler

 

1. That wasn't Maester Luwin.

2. No Zombie Hodor?

 

 

[Bobfoc]

13 minutes ago, Gazz said:

Two points
 

  Hide contents

 

1. That wasn't Maester Luwin.

2. No Zombie Hodor?

 

 

Spoiler

Hodor didn't die. He's still holding the door like a champ.

 

[Azazel]

Here is the main problem with literally everything that exists now.

People want to dictate that story instead of listening to it.

Would I have done things different?  Yes.  Does that make me unhappy with what I got?  No.