The story of King J, who is in the opening scene of Episode 1 is actually really involved.  However it is really the story of a 'good' king, it was possibly passed over because of that.  It remains to be seen if HBO will do a season on his rule.  Prior to his arc, the Aegon I and his children also form another arc and another potential season.  Or the two stories could be rolled into 1 fast-paced season? 

 

Jaehaerys I Targaryen - A Wiki of Ice and Fire (westeros.org)

 

In looking closer, it appears that Season 1 of HOD covers up to the beginning of Aegon II. 

 

So 

Spoiler

Aegon III is not covered, which is the final part of book 1 

 

 

 

20 photos from Episode 5.  Kind of gives a lot more away than the teaser.

 

4 pictures of the Strongs.  They wear a similar outfit, including the crippled guy, Larys.  He is supposed be a "Varys" type character.  Obviously the similarity in names is not an accident.

 

These are the new actresses that will be playing adult Alicent and R.

 

It is interesting to me that the R actress looks considerably different, and harsher.  It might have to do with the type of person she becomes as an adult vs the teenager.

 

 

The recent promos have some shocking late-season spoilers.  Holy crap.  I am really looking forward to seeing Episode 6 onward.

 

 

Emma looks way prettier in this show than in real life.  The hair suits her.

 

New characters will appear in the second half of the season,

Spoiler

including a new nemesis for Daemon.

 

This episode was very good and super dramatic, with nice imagery.   But it was also weird/rushed in places.

 

The Fireplace scene with King V is one of my favorites of the show.  Real truth. "Many who have been tested, wished to have been spared it".

 

 Paddy's acting is excellent, so is Milly's.  I am going to miss her.

 

The two dramas with Alicent and Sir Criten are too rushed and should have been given more scenes to make the payoff make more sense.  

Spoiler

Sir Cristen's behavior is also the weirdest part of the episode.  He went from a normal to becoming completely unhinged.

 

Daemon continues to be a bad-ass, 

Spoiler

his wife seemed interesting, they could have fleshed her out a lot more.

 

Club foot guy is basically a Littlefinger type character.

The storytelling and character work is good.

There's some tropes in play here, but with GRRM style variations.  All good but still not at the level of buildup, casting and charisma as the original GOT.  It looks like a key here is that in the original GOT, the buildups were long and deep-often occurring over many seasons, while in this show the timeframe is rushed so the payoffs are comparably a lot more short and shallow.

 

-Dying King, with succession issues.

-Princess R is basically a variation of Dany from GOT

-Ex-best friends conflict

-Forbidden romance conflicts

-Powerful Badboy

-A potential Cersei like character (obsessed with protecting her children), except not evil

-Patriarch that protects the family at all costs

-Political marriage with a 

Spoiler

gay guy with affairs on both sides

-Sneaky guy with all the inside info

-Arrogant and pompous prince

-Of course, a wedding celebration...

1 hour ago, Stromboli1 said:

The storytelling and character work is good.

 

what's your favorite characters in this show?

 

Mine are Daemon, King V, and Princess R

Viserys is the most interesting character. Also the best acting work, it's not easy to make a weak king truly compelling.

In general though I feel like the House of the Dragon cast is collectively much weaker than the Game of Thrones cast.

Admittedly Game of Thrones got very lucky with some unknowns who turned out to be good actors with great star power.

1 hour ago, SympathysSilhouette said:

Viserys is the most interesting character. Also the best acting work, it's not easy to make a weak king truly compelling.

In general though I feel like the House of the Dragon cast is collectively much weaker than the Game of Thrones cast.

Admittedly Game of Thrones got very lucky with some unknowns who turned out to be good actors with great star power.

 

Yea, Paddy's acting has been very diverse and nuanced.  I think it is award worthy.  There is an easter egg regarding the disease that is killing him.  He refuses to amputate his fingers, which causes the disease to spread into his arm and into the rest of his body.  This is a metaphor for his compassionate/peaceful and procrastinating/complacent style with dealing with politics and how he sows the seeds of destruction for House Targaryen.  He is way too slow to act, and when he acts it is already too late and the ambitious people are hovering around him, ready to strike. 

 

He is ultimately a man of peace who doesn't cope well with high stress and fear, tends to make vacillating decisions, and retreats into his hobbies (model building) and drinking.  A nice guy, but not mean enough to be a good king.

 

I recall from watching interviews that GRRM played a major role in selecting the original cast for GOT.

 

It sucks that Daemon Blackfyre's youtube channel got deleted for copyright violations.  It used to have the story of every character, organized.  Even minor characters had 30 minutes of screentime.  Regular characters had an hour or more. Major characters had hours.

 

In House of the Dragon we have characters with very little screentime- that we barely know- getting major pivots.  In this episode 

Spoiler

2 characters are introduced and then killed off.

 

I guess they just had to follow the source material, which is just a condensed history compared to ASOIAF

2 hours ago, Cult Icon said:

 

what's your favorite characters in this show?

 

Mine are Daemon, King V, and Princess R

 

Those 3, Otto, & Alicent

 

Alicent the character is about to pick up after she was lied to and saw that Rhaenyra would be a terrible Queen by their conversation. Civil War time the next episode and hopefully will get sone dragon fights in the next few episodes. I think there are 17 dragons.

30 minutes ago, Stromboli1 said:

 

Those 3, Otto, & Alicent

 

Alicent the character is about to pick up after she was lied to and saw that Rhaenyra would be a terrible Queen by their conversation. Civil War time the next episode and hopefully will get sone dragon fights in the next few episodes. I think there are 17 dragons.

 

what do you mean about terrible Queen?  Which conversation?

 

The promo shows that there will be an albino looking teenaged Aegon II (her son, but the aged-up actress is still really young looking lol).  The new actress for R has a much deeper voice and could possibly be meaner.  I think we will see the relationship between these two women worsen until there is the Dance of the Dragons.  And now Sir Criston is on Alicent's side.

 

Daemon will continue to be interesting and I am personally most looking forward to meeting his badass nemesis and seeing how King V's story plays out.

Aemond, my most anticipated character:

 

Spoiler

 

Ironic that I was really intrigued by Daemon's wife (both the character and the actress) and she got all of five minutes of screentime.

 

6 minutes ago, SympathysSilhouette said:

Ironic that I was really intrigued by Daemon's wife (both the character and the actress) and she got all of five minutes of screentime.

 

 

Yea, agreed.  That annoyed me.  She was badass and heroine-like. 

6 hours ago, Cult Icon said:

 

what do you mean about terrible Queen?  Which conversation?

 

The promo shows that there will be an albino looking teenaged Aegon II (her son, but the aged-up actress is still really young looking lol).  The new actress for R has a much deeper voice and could possibly be meaner.  I think we will see the relationship between these two women worsen until there is the Dance of the Dragons.  And now Sir Criston is on Alicent's side.

 

Daemon will continue to be interesting and I am personally most looking forward to meeting his badass nemesis and seeing how King V's story plays out.

 

A terrible Queen based on her actions & dialogue, then the conversation after Alicent talks to her father about Rhaenyra lying. Lastly was Rhaenyra's & Alicent's conversation before the wedding and afterwards she dons the green dress.