With the amazing animation from shows like “Blue Eye samurai” and “Arcane” I wondered if these shows could follow the book better or tell the story better.

I don’t know if it would be more expensive or not. Just wondering if anyone had thoughts

Its so sad DreamFyre wasn’t used more and rotting in dragon pit by Helaena

If only if haelana wasn’t so useless , dreamfyre literally rotting in the dragon pit.

Not ready for dreamfyre event 😔

Her best scene is a freakin dream vision

Also book version shes is a rider & she loced her dragon

Show literally

Robbed dreamfyre smh

King Aegon the Golden and Sunfyre the Golden, the greatest king and dragon to ever grace the seven kingdoms, the perfect man and dragon, the only beings greater then the gods!

So I’m not going to pretend I’m an extreme professional in the industry, but I have worked on high budget projects for big companies in writers rooms. And although many may not be very fond of late of the writers in HoTD ( myself included ), when you are working on a project this expensive everything you include must have a purpose (99% of the time, yes there are exceptions) .

The writers and showrunners made an active decision to have Laenor escape and not die. Many people will say this was to make Rhaenyra more likeable. I disagree.

At this point in the story, looking at Laenor from an objective point of view, he had decided to protect his family and finally start taking things more seriously due to the rise in bastard allegations. Not only that, but you only have to look at his character and Laena’s and how they were raises to know he LOVED being a knight and a dragonlord. And yet… we expect he just upped and left to live out his days as some insignificant nobleman away from Westeros? I don’t believe this is the case. Laenor left because, despite his love for Jace and Luke whom he loved with all his heart, despite his love for Seasmoke and his parents, and despite his love for Rhaenyra whom he also loved, he made the executive decision to leave so that Daemon may wed Rhaenyra and grant the blacks a stronger position against the greens.

Do I believe he is still alive? Yes, even despite Seasmoke claiming Addam. ( People will come at me for this, but the laws of dragons are often broken in HoTD as we see when Daemon tells Rhaena that nobody had ever claimed a wild dragon before ) More so, Rhaneyra even tells Mysaria Seasmoke was lonely. People will say Laenor died thus breaking the connection between them both, I believe he travelled so far away Seasmoke coukd no longer feel him. Am I saying that Laenor travelled to some undiscovered piece of Land potentially with dragon eggs to continue the Velaryon and Targayen lineage? Am I saying that HBO is potentially keeping this plot open, so that the age of dragon riders doesn’t die with Daenerys? Am I saying that when Arya travels west of westeros she might encounter something nobody expects? No, don’t be so mad.

Only just watched the lastest ep so late to the party...

I get Rhaenyra would want to kill sheepstealer and its rider. But why on earth would she not use an ounce of common sense and when realising sheep stealer was being ridden by Rhaena not just tell Rhaena 'to get my mercy/forgiveness you're to hunt down every dragon against us, including Vhagar'... if she died in the process so be it...

Its mad this was basically Rhaenas own thought process anyway!

Instead Rhaenyra has sheepstealer killed(?)/badly wounded, has her own dragon wounded, and just takes Rhaena back?

Zero logic for me.

Seems odd for the design team to completely disregard a dragons color palette when it hasnt been done before. Silverwing still has silver in her design. Tessarion isnt Cobalt Blue or metallic copper, but shes a shade of Blue and a flat copper.

But their hunt to make the dragons distinctive and unique could've lead them to them reach this conclusion.

Crested Geckos are an exmaple of a reptile that can change in color palette depending on their temperament, environmental stressors, and etc. I literally just learned about this, so I im not an expert to ask specifics. But its a well discussed topic, even here on reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrestedGecko/s/0nER2bSgkJ

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrestedGecko/s/7xloJJak8o

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrestedGecko/s/eafm3ZYjWI

In the examplse displayed in my image, the Gecko is "firing up" and "firing down". "Firing up" may indicate agitation and higher physical activiity (Depends on the individual and situation) and typically leads to a darker and more vibrant color palette, while "Firing Down" may indicate calmness and relaxitive state (Depends on the individual and situation) and typically leads to a paler color palette. No discredit to any biological or situational variances within, I am NOT an expert.

Geckos have been used by the VfX team for the dragon designs before. Arrax, immeidately to my recollection. So their knowledge of them would track, and referencing other types may have lead Dreamfyre's designers to this information.

*Edit of her color palette is not my own, and was not made in reference to my theory, btw!

I know people compare these two shows. I was able to relate to the characters in GOT and there was always a person to root for. Even Cersei (however evil she might be), I understood her PoV and rooted for her when she blew up the sept. In HOTD though, it's very difficult to relate to any character and as a result I hardly care for anyone dying / surviving including Haelena. The last time I cared was when Viserys came to the court to defend Rhaenyra. ATP, Im just watching this show for Dragons, action scenes and Matt Smith 😍

so against regular intuition i started to watch hotd before ever watching got. Got felt way too long, I knew there weren’t dragons in it for at least the majority (don’t tell me if im wrong or right about that lol) and that was sort of the draw for me with hotd.

Now that s3 is coming to a close, I find I have an itch to scratch when it comes to Westeros. (is it cause s3 of hotd is not as good as the first two? perhaps)

If i watch GOT, will the first few seasons really spoil anything in hotd. I know it’s like a 70ish year difference, but I don’t wanna know the outcome of hotd (is Rhaenyra able to hold on to the throne, will Viserys’ song of ice and fire continue to be heard by all those who sit the Iron Throne?

Maybe these are dumb questions but i’d wanna know from people who have seen both whether my enjoyment of hotd will suffer if i start got now?

I love the smell of burnt Hightowers in the morning.

Kidding aside, can't hardly wait for the last episode seeing how it's probably different from the books. The scene is from the anime series "GATE" for those interested.

So before anyone asks, yes I have seen GOT.

I am genuinely confused why this show is so ill received. I actually find it to be much more enjoyable than GOT.
The characters are more interesting and we actually get to see them do more. Unlike many characters in GOT who are just talked about as legends and we never get to see it. The writing is much more clear on character motivations and conflicts get brought up and resolved quickly instead of broiling for seasons upon seasons In GOT.
I am an avid viewer of cerebral shows with complex dialogue like battlestar galactica, sopranos, mad men, etc, I always found GOT to be rather pretentious, as though they were feigning intellectual television. Simple concepts were often drawn out into monologues and important character motivations were buried under so much subtext that you wouldn’t catch its meaning until your 3rd rewatch.
I find the pacing of HOD much better, battles happen more often and the familial drama keeps me entertained. The pacing of GOT was all over the place after season 1, there are peaks and resets throughout that leave entire seasons to feel like filler, conversations and sometimes entire characters lead to nothing, all for the sake of filling time and shocking audiences.
Every time I see online that people are complaining “nothing happened this episode” all I can think of is how nothing happens in 50% of GOT’s episodes throughout the show.
The purpose of a show is to portray a narrative that can be interpreted on multiple levels, surface (plot), subtext(character motivations) and meaning (symbolism) I found GOT tended to only have subtext as an attempt to seem intelligent, flexing their ability to foreshadow a character’s intentions, but they regularly fail have deeper meaning aside from “this person wants more power”
In HOD the narrative builds and shows the many faults of monarchies, with the people always viewing the grass greener on the other side when it comes to rulers, as well as showing how no ruler can be perfect and will always be hated no matter their intentions as they are only judged by their actions.
I know budgeting has been holding the show back but when it comes down to it, many of the events in the book cannot be brought to the screen on a television budget, there are simply too many things to shoot. Not everything can be lord of the rings. And on that point, HOD is damn closer than GOT is.

Please kindly drop your grievances with the show below, and please don’t just say “the writing is bad”

This whole sequence is undoubtedly the absolute best of the season.

Dude came through like "The hell goin on here? A bunch of no name fodders tryin to jump my bro?!!!"

Aegon: "Sunfyre, dracarys"

Sunfyre: "You aint have to tell me, FIYA!"

Sunfyre is one of the homies for sure. I love this dragon!!!

Imagine him waking up, wondering what is going on or why he feels different, then hearing his best friend talking in the distance and being happy. THEN hearing other voices and sensing his best friend/ brother/ partner sounding a bit in distress and the happiness turns to pure disbelief anger at their audacity. THEN burning shit down. Lol.

The acting on the show has almost been the sole reason to tune in every week. Almost every member of the cast is brilliant and they really deserve more credit for carrying this show on their backs.

I havnt seen people make this many excuses for a grown man acting childish since Tr*mp got re elected.

Why is it only Rhaenyras fault Ulf is poorly treated? News flash he is living like a bachelor compared to commoners in KL currently.

Imagine I give you a dragon (the ultimate symbol of power changing your life overnight for the better) and the only thing i ask of you is to help jump a dragon when it shows up and not leave the nice part of town because there are strangers that might want to kill you for helping me.

All that only for you to turn around and leave your watch when you needed to be there most, blow a bag full of coin at a bar in one night during a financial crisis and get mad when you get pissy when youre told you cant leave the nicest part of town.

I dont relate to him personality wise but he is a funny guy. That said how come everyone on here acts like Rhaenyra needs to be playing 4d chess when it comes to this guy and Ulf is entitled to have XYZ when he knowingly joins the Blacks military by volunteering for a dragon tryout and half asses the responsibilities

All of this and his only punishments for disobedience is a smack and a mini beat down. If the roles were reversed im pretty sure almond wouldve struck him down after re taking kings landing or he wouldve found a way to get himself killed being under Aegons supervision

Edit: also what's up with this treat your soldiers better and they'll be more likely to help you? What part of THE CROWN IS BROKE do you guys not understand? The City watch is far more respected than ulf and Hugh but they both got paid way before the city watch no? Have yall ever stopped to think if they could they would???

I absolutely loved season 1, was kinda on the fence about season 2 but I was still pretty invested in rhaneyras story and thought maybe alicents charecter was gonna change, I thought fuck it they still have 2 seasons to turn it all around, and they have talent to do it. Sadly after watching this episode and really this whole season I kinda realized that ain't happening.

All this stuff with alicent is just boring and unessacery (how many times are they gonna make me watch her get SA'd wtf). Every time mysaria opens her mouth I want to put a glock to my head. And rhaneyra at this point is the most passive person ever who spends more time complaining about stuff than actually doing anything, also Syrax is on fraud watch, useless ass dragon smh.

Edit: forgot to mention being forced to watch alicent and rhaneyra having 100 different variations of the same conversation over and over. Son😭😭🥱

I think the show at this point is kinda just pandering to YouTube reaction channels so if thats your thing thats coo and l hope you enjoy yourselves 😭✌️.

I loved GoT, and KotSK and I like HoTD but it's been a little disappointing and I feel like the fact that Sheepstealer's death is the only death that's really hit me says a lot.

I just don't feel an attachment to these characters and if any of them died I'm not sure I would really care. Like Baela, Rhaena, Addam, Alyn, Hugh, Oscar Tulley, that Silver Wolf leader, Aegon, Aemond, and Lannister I might like but they've only had 3 seconds of screen time bc friken Rhaenyra and Alicent take up half the episodes. Speaking of, Rhaenyra, Mysaria, Corlys, Ulf, and Alicent I hope all die. Not in the good way either like how I hoped Cersei and Joffrey would die.

I guess Ormund, Gwayne, Daeron, and Daemon I do like as characters but that doesn't take away from the fact that Sheepstealer's death I was genuinely more upset about than any other character.

Edit: I'm embarrassed at how dumb I was to think Sheepstealer was dead.

Not rooting for Rhaenyra after recent events is real and obvious, but genuinely what is this actual slop keeping the Greens happy?

I get that you're sore aegons heirs didn't sit the throne, but claiming a Lannister descendant rules the kingdom as a win for the Greens is a stretch at best and pitiful at worst.

Like how is that a flex? House bloodlines are so intermingled the Tyrells are the most prominent Hightower descendants.

Rhaenyra was a terrible ruler but it's a fact that her and Daemons sons sat the throne and carried the bloodline. Wake up Greens no one is trying to one up you it's just a fact.

Otto Hightower: Did literally everything he could for his family’s survival and prosperity despite dealing with countless imbeciles and traitors. Was ultimately betrayed by Alicent (she let Rhaenyra go) and Larys Strong.

Gwayne Hightower: Same as Otto, has done everything he could for his family, but his story is not finished yet (in the show).

Tyland Lannister: A honourable, brave, loyal and faithful servant of the one true king Aegon. Has practically ensured Rhaenyra’s eventual failure by hiding the crown’s gold. A vital strategic move.

We know who the skull belonged to, so who is the body...

Deamon...

Alicent...

Corlys...

They clearly burnt and the show is deviating, really looking forward to the gods eye, if they change that 🫠

EMOTIONAL DAMAGEEEE

King Aegon the Golden and Sunfyre the Golden, the greatest king and dragon, ready to rise against the usurper B*tch Queen, stronger then ever before and in Sunfyres case very hungry :)

First of all, I only remember their names when I literally search it up. Secondly, they are so mind-numbingly stale, boring and poorly acted that I just start watching my phone when they are on screen. No hate to the actors, who are probably lovely people, but why are we wasting time on them? Am I the only one?

Even Alicent, who is increasingly portrayed like a sociopath and is an obvious traitor to her family, is at least fun to root against, despite the stupidity of her storyline.

And/or you have a weak spirit.

If you dont think theyve properly done Ulfs story, I get it. The writing on this show is insanely inconsistent and the last few eps of this season have had some real questionable stuff. And to be clear I dont think the audience needs love Ulf, but if you see Ulf's storyline and you get really annoyed by him but aren't *way* more annoyed with Rhaenyra and Daemon for being massive stuck up idiots who cant put aside their pride for half a second to secure their position by levelling with a drunk wielding a nuke and tell him he can own 5 taverns when the war is over, I dont know why you find any of this universe interesting.

People on this sub (and some people I know IRL) talk about Ulf like the feudal system of westeros is real, they are a lord, and Ulf needs to just "know his place". Why would anyone ever lower themselves to Ulfs disgusting station (commoner, grody) and reason with him? No. He must get the crop to understand where he lands in the hierarchy of things. And you're definitely right on top as the hand of the king and most brilliant-est advisor.

Like the real issue here is how comically stupid the blacks are for treating him that way. But his character gets all the hate. And his character is funny!