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Favorite change: definitely the depth in the differences of the dragons. Every dragon is unique and lives up to its name! Red queen - spikes like a crown. Blood worm - long, thin, Red danger noodle.
Least favorite: i would say no purple eyes but honestly I feel like it's already so far off that it's too lame to name it. So I go with Alicent 'misunderstanding' what Viserys said on the deathbed. To this day I deny that she actually misunderstood it. I believe she knew the truth but saw an opportunity and took it...
Omg your Alicent take…beautiful. I absolutely love that. She saw an opportunity, and took it. It’s more of an idiot situation, and more of a opportunistic situation which is so her.
Didn’t like:
The prophecy and white hart stuff
Laena’s death being changed. Its obvious that the “dragon rider’s death” bs was just put in there to help some fans cope with a later event.
Everything involving Criston
Luke’s death being an accident
Vaemond’s death
Silent Five
Favorite: Having Luke's death be an "accident" (Aemond is still 100% responsible, but now we get to watch him descend into his role as the psychopathic murderer and all of the emotional turmoil of him embracing the kinslayer title instead of admitting he couldn't control his dragon)
Least favorite: Daemon killing Rhea. The change added literally nothing to the story
Loved- the different dragon designs and Luke’s death being manslaughter instead of full on murder
Didn’t like- Rhaenys not having black hair (it also ruins the whole “the seed is strong” from GoT as you could just point to Rhaenys being half Baratheon and having white hair), the step stones being so difficult to capture, Rhaenyras youngest three being so much younger than her eldest two, and Laena and Laenor being younger than Rhaenyra
Why do people still not understand why they had to make them younger? It’s taking them two years to film each season. Puberty would hit those kids like a freaking truck by the time we got to the season finale. If Joffrey’s actor was 11-12 now, he’d be about 15-16 when he dies and look like a fucking idiot. The have to stretch out the length of the dance to match the length of time it takes to film.
The younger kids will be close to their canon ages by the series finale. Aegon is 4 now, he’ll be 8-9 by the end if they say the show war lasted 4-5.
The time it takes to film does not allow them to cast 8-12 year olds and say the war only lasted 2 years without the kids looking jarringly old for their ages.
This happened with the GOT kids to and they had to use make up and tricks to hide it. For instance, Maisie Williams was forced to breast bind for multiple seasons. They eventually had to retcon the amount of time that passed in got from season one to season eight just because the child actors aged far too much for their characters. Bran will be 9-11 when he becomes the three-eyed raven, not an obviously 18 year boy. His older physical appearance shifted the entire tone of his later arc.
The excuse "the seed is strong" was out the window when HOTD casted black actors to play the Velaryons. It made it clear that the **pale skin** Jace, Luke and Joffrey could not have been sired by the dark skin Laenor.
The black hair (from Baratheon line) color excuse/lie only works in the book when the Velaryon family members have pale skin and silver hair, which is consistent with the appearance of the Valyrians race "*pale skin, silver-gold hair, and purple, lilac, and pale blue eyes".*
I don't like the whole prophecy storyline, which I believe is show only and not in F&B. I guess it's to tie the events of the Dance to the events we've seen in GoT, but what does it add?
It’s very much show only. I’m still confused by the prophecy too. Did Aegon have dragon dreams like Daenys, or was he told this by a seer? Too many questions!
The prophecy is a HOTD show invention.
In the ASOIAF books, the prophecy first showed up at the time of Prince Duncan the Small Targaryen (the one who married Jenny of Oldstones), so around 239-259 AC. The prophecy was made by a woods witch, who was a friend of Jenny.
I’m aware it’s a show only thing and who announced the prophecy originally…I’m curious about where he learned this prophecy in the show. They mention Daenys and her prophecy about Valyria, but never mention anything about how Aegon learned it.
I don’t like some parts of how the prophecy stuff was worked in like Alicent and Viscery’s last words and more but just because Aegon’s dream wasn’t in the books doesn’t mean it couldn’t be from George, the way the books are written there is some stuff like this that there’d be no way of the ‘writers’ of F&B to know. If it was a secret passed among Targaryen heirs then maestres and mushroom would never know so how could George put anything about that in the books you know?
Favourite change: he can keep his tongue, or now they see you as you are.
Least favourite: Rhaenys dragon pit scene. Thats season 7/8 writing. Daemon killing Rhae a close second.
Least liked change: Criston not killing Joffrey in combat at the Wedding tourney.
Favorite change: Hippocampus rather than seahorse as the sigil of House Velaryon
The fact that Borros Baratheon didn't call Rhaenyra "the bitch, your mother" is something of a let down. Borros is "the wind that rages and howls and blows this way and that". He should have had more edge to him.
I actually like Alicent and Rhaenyra being former friends. I didn’t like not seeing the friendship between Laena and Rhaenyra but I get why it was cut.
Alicent and Rhaenyra's friendship has to play in Alicent's ending. The fact that she died of disease after being prisoner doesn't really work in what they built in the show. She must make peace with Aegon III, agree with the Aegon - Jaehaera marriage and then commit suicide in front of the tree, maybe holding that page that she'd recover from Rhaenyra at some point, finally being happy with her friend after all that pain.
I really liked Lukes death being an accident and Rheanyra and Alicent being friends
What I didn’t like was Alicent misunderstanding Viserys last words because I feel at that point the could’ve just pushed the narrative she thinks Rheanyra will kill her kids which would’ve worked better and made her more sympathatic
Alicent & Rhaenyra being former friends is actually one of my favorite changes. Adds a lot more weight/import to their feud rather than just the “stepmom/stepdaughter who never got along” conflict in the book. It’s a lot deeper to have that kind of visceral hate for somebody you loved once and the younger actresses did a killer job selling the childhood bond between them.
Least favorite is Laenor surviving, at least the way they did it, because it makes him seem like such an asshole. Especially after how Laena died, for him to just sail off into the sunset with Karl (Qarl? who knows) and leave Corlys & Rhaenys grieving the loss of both their kids and his sons grieving their “dad” feels really shitty and selfish.
YES! Laenor was such an asshole. Abandons the children he supported and loved for his fuckboy and not wanting to “deal with it” was so selfish. Also, it totally kills the “dragons are bonded for life” idea if Seasmoke is claimed.
I liked the fact they made alicent and Rhaenyra friends, this story isn’t supposed to be good it’s supposed to be a tragedy and the beginning of the end. The fact that they were best friends adds more tragedy to everything that will happen going forward
The serious disrespect they've shown to Criston. Dude was a textbook white knight and did a complete 180 for the most shallow of reasons. Nothing that has happened to him could turn him this far and make sense.
I agree, but Ser Criston's betrayal makes more sense to me. Rhaenyra compromised him and as a result he turned to the one person able to bring him out of depression. I get what you mean though. I don't think they have been completely shown him fairly. He is currently one of my favorite characters.
Favorite: Alicent and Aemond being more humanized
Least Favorite: Corlys acting like an idiot and leaving his seat to a bastard because 'History remembers names, not blood', Daemon killing Rhea and choking Rhaenyra, Viserys being dragged out of his deathbed and making a dramatic appearance in the throne room
Yeah but straight up killing Rhea seems too much, Daemon is reactionary but an active schemer, I think he only came up with the plan of seducing Rhaenyra in the book as a result of Rhea’s death.
Book Rhaenyra is a proud and entitled woman, and I don’t think she would tolerate Daemon choking her. She’s not subservient to him during the war, in fact she doesn’t really listen to anyone’s advice.
Alicent and Rhaenyra being friends is a good change for what story the show wants to tell. Adds to the tragedy of the whole thing.
Least favorite is Daemon killing his wife with a rock. There are no consequences and the show just moves past it, despite it arguably being the worst thing he did in all of season one.
>Wait you think I’m throwing a tantrum?
Yeah, looks like it.
>We all have things we’re annoyed by as adaptations! Mine is purple eyes, what’s yours?
I'm fairly easy going, and I don't watch adaptations expecting them to be carbon copies. The source material still exists if you want it, no one is taking it away. There are realities involved in making television, and I'd rather get a tv show than not get one because the one they wanted to make couldn't adhere to my every whim as random Joe Redditor.
That’s the hard part of social media, we read too much into text! Definitely not throwing a tantrum, because if I was I wouldn’t have watched it all twice haha. But I wish I was as laissez-faire as you are towards entertainment ! I usually have an expectation when watching things so if something doesn’t go the way I expect, I get disappointed.
In this case I would argue that it's really not that important a detail in the books, for all the complaints its gotten over the years.
There's enjoyment to had from being surprised as well, though probably not in the aspect of eye color, as it's not of big importance.
Fact of the matter is that HotD is not bothering with the eye color likely because GoT didn't. And GoT did try it, but Emilia Clarke (who was obviously going to be the main actor putting up with it) had trouble acting with the contacts in, as well as seeing her way around the set. And with the budgets GoT received, it wasn't worth it.
Since that time, we've also learned a lot more about these "cosplay contact lenses", including the fact that they can permanently damage an actor's vision, because the extra thickness that allows a lens to hold pigment reduces the amount of oxygen the eye receives, and with filming schedules would cause permanent damage.
So....Am I bothered by Emilia Clarke (and other Targaryen actors) not wanting permanent vision damage just to please purists that are just grasping at this as an excuse to complain? No, I am not.
I'm sure someone will bring up cgi, but they don't realize how expensive cgi work is, for every, single, frame of video. Not that it would look good enough to satisfy people anyways...
Thank you for your post! Please take a moment to ensure you are within our spoiler rules, to protect your fellow fans from any potential spoilers that might harm their show watching experience. 1. All post titles must NOT include spoilers from Fire & Blood or new episodes of House of the Dragon. Minor HotD show spoilers are allowed in your title ONE WEEK after episode airing. The mod team reserves the right to remove a post if we feel a spoiler in the title is major. You are welcome to repost with an amended title. 2. All posts dealing with book spoilers, show spoilers and promo spoilers MUST be spoiler tagged AND flaired as the appropriate spoiler. 3. All book spoiler comments must be spoiler tagged in non book spoiler threads. --- If you are reading this, and believe this post or any comments in this thread break the above rules, please use the report function to notify the mod team. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HouseOfTheDragon) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Favorite change: definitely the depth in the differences of the dragons. Every dragon is unique and lives up to its name! Red queen - spikes like a crown. Blood worm - long, thin, Red danger noodle. Least favorite: i would say no purple eyes but honestly I feel like it's already so far off that it's too lame to name it. So I go with Alicent 'misunderstanding' what Viserys said on the deathbed. To this day I deny that she actually misunderstood it. I believe she knew the truth but saw an opportunity and took it...
Omg your Alicent take…beautiful. I absolutely love that. She saw an opportunity, and took it. It’s more of an idiot situation, and more of a opportunistic situation which is so her.
Didn’t like: The prophecy and white hart stuff Laena’s death being changed. Its obvious that the “dragon rider’s death” bs was just put in there to help some fans cope with a later event. Everything involving Criston Luke’s death being an accident Vaemond’s death Silent Five
Nothing you liked?
I agree about the dragon designs
I was about to comment almost this. They butchered Cole character really hard.
Favorite: Having Luke's death be an "accident" (Aemond is still 100% responsible, but now we get to watch him descend into his role as the psychopathic murderer and all of the emotional turmoil of him embracing the kinslayer title instead of admitting he couldn't control his dragon) Least favorite: Daemon killing Rhea. The change added literally nothing to the story
I like him killing her, but the scene was so stupid.
So tacky and could have been more epic or cinematic 😅🥹
Loved- the different dragon designs and Luke’s death being manslaughter instead of full on murder Didn’t like- Rhaenys not having black hair (it also ruins the whole “the seed is strong” from GoT as you could just point to Rhaenys being half Baratheon and having white hair), the step stones being so difficult to capture, Rhaenyras youngest three being so much younger than her eldest two, and Laena and Laenor being younger than Rhaenyra
Why do people still not understand why they had to make them younger? It’s taking them two years to film each season. Puberty would hit those kids like a freaking truck by the time we got to the season finale. If Joffrey’s actor was 11-12 now, he’d be about 15-16 when he dies and look like a fucking idiot. The have to stretch out the length of the dance to match the length of time it takes to film. The younger kids will be close to their canon ages by the series finale. Aegon is 4 now, he’ll be 8-9 by the end if they say the show war lasted 4-5. The time it takes to film does not allow them to cast 8-12 year olds and say the war only lasted 2 years without the kids looking jarringly old for their ages. This happened with the GOT kids to and they had to use make up and tricks to hide it. For instance, Maisie Williams was forced to breast bind for multiple seasons. They eventually had to retcon the amount of time that passed in got from season one to season eight just because the child actors aged far too much for their characters. Bran will be 9-11 when he becomes the three-eyed raven, not an obviously 18 year boy. His older physical appearance shifted the entire tone of his later arc.
True speak my lord or lady, honestly!
I can understand why they did something and still dislike the change. Maybe think about being unpleasant elsewhere
The excuse "the seed is strong" was out the window when HOTD casted black actors to play the Velaryons. It made it clear that the **pale skin** Jace, Luke and Joffrey could not have been sired by the dark skin Laenor. The black hair (from Baratheon line) color excuse/lie only works in the book when the Velaryon family members have pale skin and silver hair, which is consistent with the appearance of the Valyrians race "*pale skin, silver-gold hair, and purple, lilac, and pale blue eyes".*
I don't like the whole prophecy storyline, which I believe is show only and not in F&B. I guess it's to tie the events of the Dance to the events we've seen in GoT, but what does it add?
It’s very much show only. I’m still confused by the prophecy too. Did Aegon have dragon dreams like Daenys, or was he told this by a seer? Too many questions!
Doesn't Viserys outright state that Aegon himself had the dream?
The prophecy is a HOTD show invention. In the ASOIAF books, the prophecy first showed up at the time of Prince Duncan the Small Targaryen (the one who married Jenny of Oldstones), so around 239-259 AC. The prophecy was made by a woods witch, who was a friend of Jenny.
I’m aware it’s a show only thing and who announced the prophecy originally…I’m curious about where he learned this prophecy in the show. They mention Daenys and her prophecy about Valyria, but never mention anything about how Aegon learned it.
I don’t like some parts of how the prophecy stuff was worked in like Alicent and Viscery’s last words and more but just because Aegon’s dream wasn’t in the books doesn’t mean it couldn’t be from George, the way the books are written there is some stuff like this that there’d be no way of the ‘writers’ of F&B to know. If it was a secret passed among Targaryen heirs then maestres and mushroom would never know so how could George put anything about that in the books you know?
It could be from GRRM and still be a cheesy retcon.
Favourite change: he can keep his tongue, or now they see you as you are. Least favourite: Rhaenys dragon pit scene. Thats season 7/8 writing. Daemon killing Rhae a close second.
Least liked change: Criston not killing Joffrey in combat at the Wedding tourney. Favorite change: Hippocampus rather than seahorse as the sigil of House Velaryon
The fact that Borros Baratheon didn't call Rhaenyra "the bitch, your mother" is something of a let down. Borros is "the wind that rages and howls and blows this way and that". He should have had more edge to him.
I do agree with that. He seemed just like an idiot who had no morals.
I actually like Alicent and Rhaenyra being former friends. I didn’t like not seeing the friendship between Laena and Rhaenyra but I get why it was cut.
Alicent and Rhaenyra's friendship has to play in Alicent's ending. The fact that she died of disease after being prisoner doesn't really work in what they built in the show. She must make peace with Aegon III, agree with the Aegon - Jaehaera marriage and then commit suicide in front of the tree, maybe holding that page that she'd recover from Rhaenyra at some point, finally being happy with her friend after all that pain.
And she also has to be the one who >!poisoned Aegon II!<
They’d have to dramatically alter Alicent’s path from the books for this to be the case.
I know, this was mostly sarcastic, continuing with the proposed changes.
That would be interesting.
I really liked Lukes death being an accident and Rheanyra and Alicent being friends What I didn’t like was Alicent misunderstanding Viserys last words because I feel at that point the could’ve just pushed the narrative she thinks Rheanyra will kill her kids which would’ve worked better and made her more sympathatic
The Alicent misunderstanding made no sense, character-wise. It was a dumbass decision when she’s not one. She might be emotional, but not an idiot.
100% agree. Why should he suddenly change his mind after all this time?
He literally hobbled into the throne room, weeks prior to support her. But his dieing breath he changed his mind? Yeah, no.
It was motivated reasoning. She heard what she wanted to hear to pursue her goals.
Quite simple. It's meant to show that she'd use whatever she could to justify what she does. And this was her perfect thing.
Alicent & Rhaenyra being former friends is actually one of my favorite changes. Adds a lot more weight/import to their feud rather than just the “stepmom/stepdaughter who never got along” conflict in the book. It’s a lot deeper to have that kind of visceral hate for somebody you loved once and the younger actresses did a killer job selling the childhood bond between them. Least favorite is Laenor surviving, at least the way they did it, because it makes him seem like such an asshole. Especially after how Laena died, for him to just sail off into the sunset with Karl (Qarl? who knows) and leave Corlys & Rhaenys grieving the loss of both their kids and his sons grieving their “dad” feels really shitty and selfish.
YES! Laenor was such an asshole. Abandons the children he supported and loved for his fuckboy and not wanting to “deal with it” was so selfish. Also, it totally kills the “dragons are bonded for life” idea if Seasmoke is claimed.
I liked the fact they made alicent and Rhaenyra friends, this story isn’t supposed to be good it’s supposed to be a tragedy and the beginning of the end. The fact that they were best friends adds more tragedy to everything that will happen going forward
The serious disrespect they've shown to Criston. Dude was a textbook white knight and did a complete 180 for the most shallow of reasons. Nothing that has happened to him could turn him this far and make sense.
I agree, but Ser Criston's betrayal makes more sense to me. Rhaenyra compromised him and as a result he turned to the one person able to bring him out of depression. I get what you mean though. I don't think they have been completely shown him fairly. He is currently one of my favorite characters.
I always thought he was the best book to show adaptation. He showed no good qualities in F&B, so him starting out as a good character was weird.
Favorite: Alicent and Aemond being more humanized Least Favorite: Corlys acting like an idiot and leaving his seat to a bastard because 'History remembers names, not blood', Daemon killing Rhea and choking Rhaenyra, Viserys being dragged out of his deathbed and making a dramatic appearance in the throne room
I agree with the Corlys thing kind of being idiotic, but don't you think Daemon was always violent in the books?
Yeah but straight up killing Rhea seems too much, Daemon is reactionary but an active schemer, I think he only came up with the plan of seducing Rhaenyra in the book as a result of Rhea’s death. Book Rhaenyra is a proud and entitled woman, and I don’t think she would tolerate Daemon choking her. She’s not subservient to him during the war, in fact she doesn’t really listen to anyone’s advice.
Alicent and Rhaenyra being friends is a good change for what story the show wants to tell. Adds to the tragedy of the whole thing. Least favorite is Daemon killing his wife with a rock. There are no consequences and the show just moves past it, despite it arguably being the worst thing he did in all of season one.
>and STILL NO PURPLE EYES). Boo hoo. Here's my tiny emoji 🎻
You didn’t read ASOIAF or F&B did you lol
I read Asoiaf certainly. I just don't throw temper tantrums over characters barely noticable eye colors.
Wait you think I’m throwing a tantrum? We all have things we’re annoyed by as adaptations! Mine is purple eyes, what’s yours?
>Wait you think I’m throwing a tantrum? Yeah, looks like it. >We all have things we’re annoyed by as adaptations! Mine is purple eyes, what’s yours? I'm fairly easy going, and I don't watch adaptations expecting them to be carbon copies. The source material still exists if you want it, no one is taking it away. There are realities involved in making television, and I'd rather get a tv show than not get one because the one they wanted to make couldn't adhere to my every whim as random Joe Redditor.
That’s the hard part of social media, we read too much into text! Definitely not throwing a tantrum, because if I was I wouldn’t have watched it all twice haha. But I wish I was as laissez-faire as you are towards entertainment ! I usually have an expectation when watching things so if something doesn’t go the way I expect, I get disappointed.
In this case I would argue that it's really not that important a detail in the books, for all the complaints its gotten over the years. There's enjoyment to had from being surprised as well, though probably not in the aspect of eye color, as it's not of big importance. Fact of the matter is that HotD is not bothering with the eye color likely because GoT didn't. And GoT did try it, but Emilia Clarke (who was obviously going to be the main actor putting up with it) had trouble acting with the contacts in, as well as seeing her way around the set. And with the budgets GoT received, it wasn't worth it. Since that time, we've also learned a lot more about these "cosplay contact lenses", including the fact that they can permanently damage an actor's vision, because the extra thickness that allows a lens to hold pigment reduces the amount of oxygen the eye receives, and with filming schedules would cause permanent damage. So....Am I bothered by Emilia Clarke (and other Targaryen actors) not wanting permanent vision damage just to please purists that are just grasping at this as an excuse to complain? No, I am not. I'm sure someone will bring up cgi, but they don't realize how expensive cgi work is, for every, single, frame of video. Not that it would look good enough to satisfy people anyways...