House of the Dragon - Episode I

[Datawire]

I enjoyed the first episode.

The tournament was really well-done; it was the colorful pageant and disgusting spectacle of violence combo that we should have seen in the early King's Landing scenes in Game of Thrones season 1 (the tournament in Ned Stark's honor, where he brought Sansa, and Littlefinger met Sansa for the first time and very quickly showed his fascination for her).
Queen Aemma Arryn's fate drives home the precarious position of married women, even queens who could expect the best medical care in Westeros, facing childbirth.
The friendship of the teenaged Rhaenyra and Alicent is bittersweet, considering what will befall them in the future.
Dragons! We see dragons in flight as a fairly commonplace occurrence for Targaryens and for King's Landing - Rhaenyra taking a fun ride on her Syrax and Prince Daemon and his girlfriend/spy-advisor Mysaria flying away on his dragon Caraxes.
That prophecy of Ice and Fire certainly came out of left field, didn't it? Wonder if that was GRRM's way of sticking it to the showrunners of Game of Thrones, who pretty much ignored the prophecy and the birthright of Jon Snow...

With that being said, ouch. Some of the dialogue came across cringe worthy. Some of the effects seemed unfinished...maybe rushed. There was also some lack of humor that GRRM always peppered in.

Overall, decent first episode. They are setting the stage obviously, looking forward to see how things play out.

 

If it's ok, I would like to post an individual thread each week, per episode just to see how things unfold. I am hoping for the best.

 

Spoilers will most likely to be incoming.

Edited August 23, 2022 by Datawire

[SOJA]

Loved it. They've reeled me right back in 

[Rubi]

Loved the music throughout the episode as well. 
 

Daemon is going to be a fun character to watch. 

[Davidson Deac II]

HBO app crashed on me.  Had to watch it on my PC.  Eventually, HBO said to delete the app and reinstall it, and I can watch it now, although I am not sure if it worked due to lower traffic volume or due to the reinstall.  

[Khyber53]

Yeah, they did well with it. I'll be tuning in.

Lots of Easter eggs.

[cookinbrak]

So why did they tell the dude to go, but take a dragon with you?

[Rubi]

On 8/26/2022 at 5:13 PM, cookinbrak said:

So why did they tell the dude to go, but take a dragon with you?

He was exiled for insulting the king / his dead son. 

They didn’t tell him to take a dragon - but it’s Daemon, he’s kind of crazy and the dragon is his. 

[Brooklyn 3.0]

Looking forward to tonight. And The Rings of Power is next week!

[Rubi]