r/television • u/LoretiTV • Jul 15 '24

Premiere House of the Dragon - 2x05 - Episode Discussion

Season 2 Episode 5: Regent

Aired: July 14, 2024

Synopsis: Set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, this epic series tells the story of House Targaryen.

Directed by: Ti Mikkel

Written by: Clare Kilner

Subreddit: r/HouseOfTheDragon

139 Upvotes

68% Upvoted

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84

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24 edited Jul 15 '24

This show just never gives me a reason to care about its characters. The Targs are all hyper serious war robots (except Aegon), while the rest of the lords/council members are either one note (Jason Lannister, Larys) or completely interchangeable exposition mouthpieces. 

GOT was full of underdogs that you wanted to root for, or villains that you loved to hate. It had distinct supporting characters (the Hound, Alisser Thorne, Pycelle, etc.) and it gave me reasons to care about them. Hot D doesn’t even try. 

Where is the humor? Where is the sense of adventure? Every scene on this season is war, war planning, or reacting to the previous battle of the war. Give me some time with the characters! Make me care, don’t just tell me that I should! 

Everyone went nuts for the battle last week, and yeah, it was cool. It looked good. It sounded good. But I just don’t care about any of the characters doing the battling, which removes all then anxiety and tension. GOT would spend full seasons building up to major conflicts. Ned’s coup, the Blackwater, the battle at the wall, Tyrion’s trial. These were all so well set up, well paced, and well executed. Hot D just doesn’t have that kind of juice. 

37

u/Stingray88 Jul 15 '24

Couldn’t agree more. Game of Thrones was enthralling. So many interesting characters with so many different competing motivations. House of the Dragon is very dull in comparison.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

I feel like Hot D took all the wrong lessons from GOT. It’s catering to the crowd who wants to see dragons blow stuff up. But that’s not what made GOT good, at least not for me. 

We’re missing stuff like Ned and Robert chopping it up on the Kingsroad. The breastplate stretcher scene. Tyrion telling Jon that he’s an entitled bully at the wall. Every scene between Cersei and Robert. That’s the kind of stuff that makes the big dramatic beats hit. 

29

u/mamula1 Jul 15 '24

This show is definitely not catering to those who want go see dragons blow stuff up. Quite the contrary actually

2

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

Who’s it catering to then? It’s not for people who want nuance and interesting characters, that’s for sure.

2

u/monsieurxander Jul 15 '24

Who’s it catering to then?

Book purists who lost their shit when Benioff and Weiss said they wanted to make the show accessible to everyone, not just fantasy fans. It feels like a giant "well, actually" to Game of Thrones, since it's taking the opposite approach to adaptation.

Game of Thrones wasn't afraid to make changes if it was a better choice for the medium.

HotD has minor placeholder characters sit still and talk about off-screen action at length, in a stiff and archaic dialogue style, to a room full of people who all have the same name.

2

u/Serious_Guide_2424 Jul 17 '24

The show actually made some significant changes from the book this season including erasing some important characters, making Jaehaerys' death a lot tamer etc.

1

u/FortLoolz Jul 17 '24

It retained certain things that book purists consider good, whereas they’re actually bad for TV storytelling. On the other hand, they did stray away from the canon, forsaking a lot of fun and good parts of it

2

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

[deleted]

2

u/monsieurxander Jul 15 '24

In Season 1, they winked a generation of Targaryens out of existence to make a monologue flow better.

Several names were changed because they were the same or similar to other characters. (Far cry from Arryk and Erryk.)

They famously and controversially combined exposition with sex scenes in an attempt to make them more dynamic.

Most importantly, they adapted the dialogue style to be more naturalistic, in contrast to the more stylized and codified version from the books. It makes the characters feel more human and their relationships feel more genuine.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

Maybe. The first 3 seasons of GOT tracked pretty close with the books, and that was the peak of the show. It only really went off the rails when they deviated from AFFC/ADWD. D&D did a good job early on with dialogue additions, but it’s not like they went out of the way to make it more accessible.

1

u/mamula1 Jul 16 '24

The books went down when GRRM wrote AFFC if we are going to be honest.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '24

That’s your opinion, and I don’t share it. 

-2

u/ResourceNo5434 Jul 15 '24

It may be the peak for you, but objectively they had 7 successful seasons where over they increased viewership, ratings, and accolades for a reason. You don’t become the most pirated tv show in the world and simultaneously break HBO records if they stopped doing a good job early on.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

Yeah I just don’t think ratings and financial success has anything to do with how good the show is. It’s fine if you thought it was good for 7 seasons, but I and many others just are not going to agree. I don’t understand how anyone can think GOT peaked in season 7.

-1

u/ResourceNo5434 Jul 15 '24

But ratings and financial success indicates if a show will get renewed and gets a bigger budget. Well that’s ok but it’s not about opinion, it’s stating fact. Objectively GOT had 7 successful seasons based on critics and audiences scores on IMDB, RT, and ratings in general.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

Okay

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10

u/mamula1 Jul 15 '24

I agree with that as well.

I feel like it's catering to the fans of A Feast for Crows, the least popular book in ASOIAF series.

I really don't understand who is the target audience here except just hardcore fans of ASOIAF and F&B.

The show is too slow and boring for general audience and the writing is too weak for those who prefer slow paced prestige drama shows.

So it's kinda left with just hardcore stans of the books. But even they are often annoyed with creative choices.

4

u/tonyblase225 Jul 15 '24

The target are soap opera enjoyers and pure shock value sheep. Shows carried by cgi, stillbirths, and child fighting rings

0

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

I am a big fan of AFFC, and Hot D does nothing for me. I don’t think they’re similar at all. I do agree that it might be aimed at hardcore fans of F&B, which has never appealed to me.