House of the Dragon (Game of Thrones) Thread

[Azazel]

I am extremely unhappy that they wrote Strong Belwas out of the show. Book info on him in spoiler tag (book spoilers that the show is obviously decided to skip)

Strong Belwas was the bodyguard of Asten Whitebeard, an old man with ties to the Kingdoms that advised Dany and was later revealed to be Ser Barristan Selmy. Obviously in the show he was revealed right away so that plot isn't going to happen. Strong Belwas is the main part of my favorite chapter in the book and I'm very sad that it won't be happening in the show now. I liked him because he added much needed comedy into Dany's story because people just look at him as a fat oaf, not really realizing that Ser Barriastan, one of the best swordsman in the world hand picked him to be his guard.

I am happy that they are really letting Bronn be amazing in the show. He is great in the books but I think he is even better in the show. Sucks that there was no Varys in this episode either, because I sorely miss him.

[TKz]

Bronn is still the best. Strong return, some great dialogue made up for the fact that nothing really happened. I love this show to bits, I honestly think it's my all time favorite show. I'm a bit worried, with this season being one half of one of the books, though. Without spoilers, anyone that's read the books: what do you think of this? Is it a good idea, or is there probably going to be a less impressive end to this season than the previous two?

[TEOL]

There are a couple of big twist set pieces in the third book, any of which could serve well as a big series finale, so I don't think it'll be a problem.

EDIT: On the other hand, while I enjoyed the first episode of this season, I did find it a bit slower paced than in the past. Might just be me though.

[GoGo Yubari]

Oh, it's really slow-paced. But it's sort of a necessary evil this week with the ridiculous amount of characters they need to go "hey, this is what this character is doing right now!" for.

[TKz]

Sweet, that's good to hear. And yeah, it was super slow, I don't expect it to pick up until maybe the 3rd or 4th episode, once they'e gotten all the characters stories out of the way and can start focusing on fewer characters each episode.

[Bobfoc]

The first episodes of the last two series were slow too. I actually quite like these kinds of expositional episodes, though. Having not had any new episodes for almost a year, there's something very warming and comforting about seeing so many characters pop up and deliver a few lines of dialogue here and there.

[NobBe Nobbs]

Bronn is still the best. Strong return, some great dialogue made up for the fact that nothing really happened. I love this show to bits, I honestly think it's my all time favorite show. I'm a bit worried, with this season being one half of one of the books, though. Without spoilers, anyone that's read the books: what do you think of this? Is it a good idea, or is there probably going to be a less impressive end to this season than the previous two?

Me and my better half, having read the books repeatedly leading up to this season, have a couple of theories about what's going to happen when and while I don't know if there's anything that's going to live up to the Battle of the Blackwater in terms of spectacle, there are a few events that are absolutely MASSIVE game-changers which occur in a Storm of Swords. I want to say that, in keeping with how both S1E9 and S2E9 had big events, my money is on S3E9 to follow suit...

Spoilers follow. Don't read this if you've not read the books

...because with an episode title like "The Rains of Castamere", I'm pretty confident that S3E9 is the last we'll see of Robb Stark and pretty much everybody involved in his storyline besides those who betray him. And the more I see and read about the wonderful theory that Talisa Maegyr is secretly a spy for the Lannisters, the more I believe she's going to have a part in instigating it.

We actually watched it yesterday with a friend of ours who has studiously avoided reading the books at all in order to judge the series on it's own merits, not get spoiled and not get stuck on "well, it didn't happen like THAT", and it's absolutely fascinating to see him throw out theories about what he thinks is going to happen. Most of it is ingeniously wrong, but he nailed the final scenes with Dany in Astapor right from the beginning, almost by accident. Speaking of, Azazel, I wouldn't be surprised if Strong Belwas rocks up a little bit later - he's not immediately needed for the reasons you said, but he's a strong character and there's plenty of scope for him to turn up in his own damn time.

One more thing, again for book-readers only...

...the way the Harrenhal scenes developed are an interesting deviation from the book, and I didn't start thinking about how things are going to have to change until Qyburn turned up. I'm guessing that the writers have five episodes to a) introduce the Brave Companions, b) get Roose Bolton set up in Harrenhal, c) get Robb and co out of there and d) get Jaime and Brienne into captivity.

[Azazel]

From what I read he isn't even cast for this season, so it's unlikely he will show up. To bring him in later wouldn't make much sense either...

Book spoiler

since his whole purpose is that nobody takes him seriously until his duel with the knight. His role is Selmy/Danys bodyguard and comic relief for her story, so they are probably going to skip him all together.

I'm mostly just upset because through the course of the books I really liked a lot of the minor characters and want I see them on the show, since most of the time the actors make them even more enjoyable (Syrio, Jeor Mormont, Bronn, Varys, Jorah, Sallador Saan).

But seriously, top 3 characters are Bronn, Tyrion and Varys and I'm glad they spend so much one on screen together. The "threats" between Tyrion and Varys last season were wonderful.

[MalaCloudy Black]

..B-..Bronn?

[Josh]

Incredible.

[MalaCloudy Black]

"The fuck you doing here?"

Brilliant.

[livid]

Yeah that was great....

I missed The Hound.

Also, it's nice to finally get some insight on what the fuck's been going on with Bran this entire time.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Also, I rather liked the touch with

Thoros singing "Rains of Castamere".

[Benjamin]

I am extremely unhappy that they wrote Strong Belwas out of the show. Book info on him in spoiler tag (book spoilers that the show is obviously decided to skip)

Strong Belwas was the bodyguard of Asten Whitebeard, an old man with ties to the Kingdoms that advised Dany and was later revealed to be Ser Barristan Selmy. Obviously in the show he was revealed right away so that plot isn't going to happen. Strong Belwas is the main part of my favorite chapter in the book and I'm very sad that it won't be happening in the show now. I liked him because he added much needed comedy into Dany's story because people just look at him as a fat oaf, not really realizing that Ser Barriastan, one of the best swordsman in the world hand picked him to be his guard.

I am happy that they are really letting Bronn be amazing in the show. He is great in the books but I think he is even better in the show. Sucks that there was no Varys in this episode either, because I sorely miss him.

I just watched the first episode of Season 3, and am waiting for them to show the next episode here tonight. But, if we're talking about comedy characters, I'm definitely missing Dolorous Edd. He's the funniest character of them all.

Also, I went and did what I shouldn't have done and read everything up till Dance With Dragons. I don't know whether this affected my viewing of this episode, but it didn't feel as HOLY SHIT as the first two seasons did

Also, book spoilers regarding Catelyn

I really fucking hate that we have Catelyn as a reanimated person. Felt a bit like jumping the shark.

[Ruki]

Gah! I love this show!

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Arya

[Azazel]

Just watched last nights episode. I had completely forgotten how awesome the Queen of Thorns is. Also, I want Jeor Mormont to be my grandfather.

[TKz]

Good episode, but man, they definitely need to start doing episodes focusing on less characters starting next week. I love every story right now, but it's hard to get invested in each one when they only get about 5 minutes each.

[Herr Matzat]

I am actually surprised how invested i am in nearly everyone. They already managed to get this working in the past Seasons (Season 2 being prime here because more and more people got added) which not only shows you how great they translated the books into screenplays but also how astoundingly amazing the acting is from everyone - which is absolutely breathtaking if you consider how many young actors they have when you look at how terrible just having one can turn out in a movie or on other shows.

I am so happy this show not only exists exists but also has an audience thats big enough to keep it going.

[nabeel]

So I started watching the show last year and after the end of Season 2, started reading the books and only stopped after I had finished the fifth one.

The problem is because I watched the show first and then read the books, everything I read was pictured in my head as being played on tv and now it's just one big blur of 'wait, did this actually happen in the tv series or is my mind making stuff up again?'.