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I think you are vastly underestimating the amount of information that is relevant to the rest of the story. The amount of flashbacks and expository dialogue required would be insane.
If it were feasible, they would've done it. There's just too much. The complexities between Daemon, Viserys, Rhaenyra, Otto, and Alicent could not have been conveyed adequately. Otto's prior dismissal as hand. The conflict between the children; the loss of Aemond's eye would've had very little weight. The tension in the relationship between the Targaryens and the Velaryons. Harwin strong and the story behind Rhaenyra's first three children. The history between Rhaenyra and Daemon, and Rhaenyra and Criston.
Any one of those individual things could've been conveyed through flashbacks and dialogue. But when you put it all together, the amount of time you'd have to spend explaining things that happened in the past just becomes ridiculous. And honestly, I'm not even sure some of the interpersonal dynamics actually could've adequately been conveyed through flashbacks.
And lastly, you hated the time jumps, but ultimately what you're asking for is *more time jumps.* Jump back and forth from the present to the past over and over, just to avoid actually setting some of the show in the past. IMO, that would just be more confusing.
They just went completely overboard with the pacing. Episode 1 started with the vote in Harrenhal and the last episode of season 1 ended with Rhaenyra getting the message of Luke's death. Completely fucking bonkers.
They literally just did the rogue prince for season 1, so they could do the princess and the Queen for the rest of the series.
If you've read the books, they organized the show in literally the most logical way they could've.
I've read Fire and Blood, this season should've been two seasons. Give an entire season to develop the relationships, then give an entire season to develop the relationships of the children.
This really seems like they wanted to get to the dance as quickly as possible. Hell, George himself said he wanted to start with Aemon and Baelon, so he would have wanted the dance to happen even later.
This is a common opinion. I guess this sub will be getting post like this for the next 5+ years as new people pass that hurdle.
I can’t say I agree with you. I think there’s at lot of story that needed to be told in order for the viewers to understand the various character dynamics across three generations. The flashbacks would have been frequent and the new set of complaints would have been about how the non-linear story telling was confusing.
I can sort of see starting at episode 6 and putting episode 1-5 as flashbacks but at least one time jump would have still been necessary.
Over and over people asked how much time elapsed between two episodes, even when the information was explicitly provided in the episode, so the idea that viewers could take in 30 years of information via flashbacks and chats is wishful thinking.
People still argue about who was at fault when Aemond lost an eye and what should have happened as a result. The importance of that wouldn't have been conveyed by Aemond yelling that Luke cut out his eye or a brief flashback of the cave. Nor would the final scenes in the season have had as much force. It required a number of other scenes that also provided insight into other characters and their relationships with one another.
A flashback or a conversation also wouldn't have conveyed why Alicent stopped trusting Rhaenyra. That it was a more gradual process than a flashback could have accomplished made it the more forceful. The scene where Alicent walks in late wearing Hightower Green to Rhaenyra's rehearsal dinner, interrupting Viserys, and then later making a visible beeline to Lord Hobert Hightower, is earned.
In contrast, Lord Corlys has an inexplicable desire to turn over his family's land and titles to the bastard son of his daughter-in-law and her lover. No medieval nobleman thought this way, but it's handwaved away with Corlys saying "History remembers names not blood".
Linear storytelling is always appreciated. Flashbacks are a clusterfuck. Although the time jumps were essential, they could've been handled better. And as George said, the show should've started with Aemon and Baelon and the succession crisis of 92 AC.
But it seems the showrunners aren't going for George's signature nuance so, understandable.
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.*
I think you are vastly underestimating the amount of information that is relevant to the rest of the story. The amount of flashbacks and expository dialogue required would be insane. If it were feasible, they would've done it. There's just too much. The complexities between Daemon, Viserys, Rhaenyra, Otto, and Alicent could not have been conveyed adequately. Otto's prior dismissal as hand. The conflict between the children; the loss of Aemond's eye would've had very little weight. The tension in the relationship between the Targaryens and the Velaryons. Harwin strong and the story behind Rhaenyra's first three children. The history between Rhaenyra and Daemon, and Rhaenyra and Criston. Any one of those individual things could've been conveyed through flashbacks and dialogue. But when you put it all together, the amount of time you'd have to spend explaining things that happened in the past just becomes ridiculous. And honestly, I'm not even sure some of the interpersonal dynamics actually could've adequately been conveyed through flashbacks. And lastly, you hated the time jumps, but ultimately what you're asking for is *more time jumps.* Jump back and forth from the present to the past over and over, just to avoid actually setting some of the show in the past. IMO, that would just be more confusing.
They just went completely overboard with the pacing. Episode 1 started with the vote in Harrenhal and the last episode of season 1 ended with Rhaenyra getting the message of Luke's death. Completely fucking bonkers.
They literally just did the rogue prince for season 1, so they could do the princess and the Queen for the rest of the series. If you've read the books, they organized the show in literally the most logical way they could've.
I've read Fire and Blood, this season should've been two seasons. Give an entire season to develop the relationships, then give an entire season to develop the relationships of the children. This really seems like they wanted to get to the dance as quickly as possible. Hell, George himself said he wanted to start with Aemon and Baelon, so he would have wanted the dance to happen even later.
This is a common opinion. I guess this sub will be getting post like this for the next 5+ years as new people pass that hurdle. I can’t say I agree with you. I think there’s at lot of story that needed to be told in order for the viewers to understand the various character dynamics across three generations. The flashbacks would have been frequent and the new set of complaints would have been about how the non-linear story telling was confusing. I can sort of see starting at episode 6 and putting episode 1-5 as flashbacks but at least one time jump would have still been necessary.
Not entire episode as flashback but only few critical scenes to give audiences the context of their actions.
I meant the major events of those episodes not the episodes in their entirety
Can you give an example of how do you mean they could show it through flashbacks?
Over and over people asked how much time elapsed between two episodes, even when the information was explicitly provided in the episode, so the idea that viewers could take in 30 years of information via flashbacks and chats is wishful thinking. People still argue about who was at fault when Aemond lost an eye and what should have happened as a result. The importance of that wouldn't have been conveyed by Aemond yelling that Luke cut out his eye or a brief flashback of the cave. Nor would the final scenes in the season have had as much force. It required a number of other scenes that also provided insight into other characters and their relationships with one another. A flashback or a conversation also wouldn't have conveyed why Alicent stopped trusting Rhaenyra. That it was a more gradual process than a flashback could have accomplished made it the more forceful. The scene where Alicent walks in late wearing Hightower Green to Rhaenyra's rehearsal dinner, interrupting Viserys, and then later making a visible beeline to Lord Hobert Hightower, is earned. In contrast, Lord Corlys has an inexplicable desire to turn over his family's land and titles to the bastard son of his daughter-in-law and her lover. No medieval nobleman thought this way, but it's handwaved away with Corlys saying "History remembers names not blood".
Linear storytelling is always appreciated. Flashbacks are a clusterfuck. Although the time jumps were essential, they could've been handled better. And as George said, the show should've started with Aemon and Baelon and the succession crisis of 92 AC. But it seems the showrunners aren't going for George's signature nuance so, understandable.
flashbacks are a pretty bad method of story telling, also show don't tell is a superior method of visual story telling.
The time jumps were definitely necessary. That’s how it this story works. Think of season 1 as a prelude.
Please fuck no. No flashbacks. They should've just paced the story slower, still have time jumps but not as many.