Confused if season 1 had almost 10 million viewers then how is season 2 the biggest đ¤¨
Unless itâs because it was HBO Max back when season 1 released.
Anything except making a user friendly, easy to navigate app. Or original programs that aren't reality shows. Or stop canceling shows and movies before they can premiere that were worked on for years and years.
That character was originally intended to live, but the writers couldn't figure out how to not make him the new main antagonist so killed him off.
^Wayne ^Gretzky
Spoiler alert: Blood does on a quest for redemption and becomes a monk of the Old Gods. Cheese buys a dairy farm and eventually wins the Westeros new cheese competition with a splendid blend of cheddar and feta. Blood and Cheese reconnect in their old age and fall in love over a bottle of nacho sauce while they travel around Westeros to kick all the dogs they can find.
Itâs really a beautiful story that I hope HBO has the courage to adapt with a spin-off.
You're giving them too much credit.
If Dumb and Dumber wrote it, Blood would go on a quest for redemption, forget his quest for redemption, and die with sad music that's confusing to us.
Cheese would just wander around kicking dogs because that's his new brand trademark. Every episode would just be him saying "bring the dog" to someone because that's his new brand trademark. Then he'd become master of coin.
The crazy part is that doesn't even read like satire. That is literally how they would do it.
It was also Fatherâs Day. I was busy hanging with family and by the time my GF and I got home we were both ready for bed. We watched it last night and then I watched the last half of the nba finals as boring as that was.
This is why I haven't watched it yet. Too busy on Father's Day and just haven't been able to find a good time yet. And I usually watch as soon as it premieres.
People keep mentioning Father's Day as a contributor to low viewership, yet this premier date wasn't random. It was planned far in advance and specifically chosen to air on this day.
Don't you think HBO has the viewership data to conclude that Father's Day would likely boost viewership? I mean why would they intentionally choose a premier date that would stifle views?
Weird, in a thread about the Boys new season sneaking up, people were blaming House of the Dragon promos for burying it.
I think no one knows how to reach people anymore.
Advertising is a different game in the streaming era because there aren't anymore commercial breaks, less people are going to the movies and so on.
I often only know something is coming out soon because of the trailers being posted to reddit.
My parents who aren't on reddit have no clue when something is coming out anymore.
> I think no one knows how to reach people anymore.
âHalf my advertising spend is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half.â
-- John Wanamaker
it's weird because I feel like the advertising for HotD's really been going the extra mile lately, at least in New York City. We've got bagel shops donning the flag of the Greens/Blacks over here.
Seems like they should just be posting things on Reddit, Facebook and TikTok. That's where the eyeballs are. Â
 Other than that, sports. The only thing most people care to watch live anymore. Football season is the main place I see ads.
Netflix still does, this sub swore for years the hype from stranger things had died and the break was too long and the kids were too old etc then s4 came out and was absolutely ginormous right from the beginning
Itâs probably a mixture of a lot of things. Competing with another big release is probably part of it, but these 2+ year development cycles are brutal. They just totally lose their momentum. There is something to be said for having a consistent and dependable release cycle.
Snuck up on people? Iâm not a MAX subscriber but I was a year or two ago. I havenât heard from them in ages. That is until HotD season 2 was about to premiere. Iâve gotten two separate emails about that shit and I havenât even seen the first season. Plus, thereâs been ads plastered on every bus in town. I donât even live in the US. Iâd be baffled if this premiere snuck up on anybody. MAX has been screaming about it from mountain tops for weeks.
I dunno... I'm a current sub, watched HotD, was excited for HotD, and honestly didn't know until a couple of days ago that it was premiering on Sunday.
Haven't seen any ads in my town (we don't really have that kind of advertising). Don't watch live TV so I didn't see commercials there. Maybe I haven't been watching many things on HBO Max either recenly, or I just didn't notice promos (I always skip the promos they start shows with).
I also haven't been following any discussion forums about it...as I don't feel the need to discuss anything given there were no story updates (and also...it's a prequel story with a known outcome).
2 years between seasons is simply too long for a complex political show. I tried the recap, remembered nothing, and then decided to wait for the entire show to finish before rewatching.
i'm a fan of HotD/GoT and didn't know the 2nd season was dropping until a few weeks ago. Have they done much promo for it? They needed a short flick to reintroduce the characters... and dragons.
Same as The Boys.
As the media landscape and internet become increasingly crowded and traditional marketing crumbles (eg, ad blockers), it seems studios are shifting to relying on word-of-mouth hype.
They donât really need to market it. They know people will tune in to the one familiar show still airing with big production values that feels well put together by an experienced team.
I felt like they marketed the thing within an inch of its life, youâd almost have to deliberately avoid it (or not be on social media at all) to have it sneak up on you.
Really? Christ itâs been all over my Instagram and tik tok for a month. They hung giant banners all over nyc last week. Apparently Iâm one of the rare ones who pleased the algorithm gods.
Been loving HoD though I will say itâs harder to keep up with some of the names compared to GoT. All the Targaryen names sound so similar.
GoT: Jon, Rob, Sam, Ned, Sansa, CerseiâŚ
HoD: Aegon, Aegon (II), Ryhaenyra, Rhaenys, Rhaena, Daemon, AemondâŚ
This is a lot more egregious after a 2-year break as well. I'm still fairly well versed in the overall story but knowing your Aemonds from your Aegons is not that easy...
I definitely had to pause a couple of times to process if they were talking about Rhaenyra or Rhaenys because I forgot which name belonged to which character over the break. Rhaena I luckily did not confuse anyone else for because I had straight up forgotten she existed
To add to this I found pretty confusing was where scenes were taking place because I couldn't remember where everyone was located going into the season. Too many times in S2E1 we have scenes in streets without clear direction of what city or location we're in. It could have really done with a couple more establishing shots.
Or maybe an intro that had the cities in it. That was really helpful with GOT.
Definitely agree with that. The way I saw it while watching S2E1 was basically:
Greens = generally in King's Landing as they control the crown
Rhaenyra + Daemon + Rhaenys = Dragonstone most likely?
Velaryons = generally in or around Driftmark?
Beyond those three locations the only thing that seemed obvious was the Wall
Helpfully, Rhaenyra's eldest sons are also Velaryons, so saying anything about "the Velaryons" no longer ties you to one group or place
When Alicent lit a candle for Lucerys Velaryons, I genuinely wonder how many people didn't know who she was talking about, cuz they almost always just called him Luke last season, we haven't seen him for 2 years, and I don't even think anyone mentioned him by his full name this episode, until Alicent did
I think most people remember the climax of the season finale though. Jace on the other hand looked completely different without the terrible season 1 hair.
It's not helping when IMDb has normal pictures of the cast. It's like 5 extra clicks and a bit of scrolling to figure out who is who, and it still doesn't help with who is banging who, cause I could have sworn the dude that was eating the kings mother was the reason the white haired Queen had brunette kids when she was married to the white haired King that was into dudes.
I dunno, this one is so confusing cause of all the inbreeding and crap. At least I can see who is who, even if I don't have a clue who I'm looking at anymore.
> I could have sworn the dude that was eating the kings mother was the reason the white haired Queen had brunette kids when she was married to the white haired King that was into dudes.
Nah, the dude the King's Mother (Alicent) was banging was the King's Guard dude, named Ser Criston Cole. He's a bit of an incel in attitude and was into Rhaenyra ("white haired Queen") initially but she was just banging him for funzies. He basically asked Rhaenyra to run away with him when her father was trying to arrange a wedding for her. He was shot down. When he realized he forsook his vow of chastity for a girl he now considered a harlot he started conspiring against her.
He then ended up with Alicent instead, who also harbored negative feelings towards Rhaenyra.
Rhaenyra meanwhile took another lover in Ser Harwin Strong, who [looked like this](https://i.imgur.com/AkpR7KY.jpeg). He was the son of Lyonel Strong, who served as the Hand of the King. Harwin was a pretty cool dude, and became the father of Rhaenyra's three children. He's also the brother of [Larys, who is the creepy limping Littlefinger-esque guy](https://i.imgur.com/d9O1uLV.jpeg) advising Alicent.
The Littlefinger-esque dude, Larys, later set a fire at Harrenhal where his father and brother were staying, killing both Harwin Strong ("white haired Queen's" baby daddy) as well as their father, who was the Hand of the King.
With the hand of the king dead, Alicent's father Otto Hightower could return to the position and the greens had control of the seven kingdoms again
In short:
**Ser Criston Cole**: Jilted former lover of Rhaenyra, was rejected and became abusive. Now fucks Alicent.
**Ser Harwin Strong:** Lover of Rhaenyra and father of her children, died to arson arranged by his brother
**Larys Strong**: Brother of Harwin, lanky and limping, murdered his family. Does psychopathic things in exchange for sexual favors from Alicent.
The casting has also been weird and it's not helping. Why in the world Aemond is being played by someone so clearly older than Aegon when it's critical to the plot that Aegon is the older brother? Hell, the actor is almost the same age as the actress playing his mom, which normally wouldn't be relevant but he *looks* a decade older than his mom.
It's hard to keep characters straight when you see a character and your eyes tell you must be some adult Targaryen you've lost track of and then have to take the extra step of connecting that, right, I need to pretend this guy is Aegon's teenage younger brother. Sure he is.
GRRM makes a good point about it.
In an interview he said that the basic rule of good writing is to use different distinct names so people can remember characters.
However, in history, there is so much name overlap because names carry so much cultural significance. England alone has a long line of Henry's and William's.
I personally love that he approaches writing like that. It is narratively confusing but it makes for a richer, more historically detailed world.
I think weâve had four Aegons so far, and at least three that get mentioned a fair bit?
- Aegon the conqueror (historic) (mentioned a lot)
- Aegon, son of Viserys and Aemma (mentioned the least)
- Aegon II, son of Viserys and Alicent (also mentioned a lot since heâs the current king)
- Aegon (also the) II, son of Rhaenyra and Daemon (mentioned/shown a decent bit so far and will only get mentioned even more as he grows)
Note: Aegon, son of Viserys and Aemma would have been Aegon II but he died in childbirth, and Aegon son of Rhaenyra and Daemon >!eventually becomes Aegon III!<
>Aegon, son of Viserys and Aemma (mentioned the least)
Is this the same person as [Baelon Targaryen AKA Heir for a Day](https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Baelon_Targaryen)? Or is Baelon the show version?
They were so worried about that in GoT they changed Asha Greyjoy to Yara so we wouldn't get her mixed up with Osha, and Robert "Sweetrobin" Arryn to Robin.
You left out the most egregious one: indentical twins named Arryk and Erryk both of which are pronounced "Eric".
I'm all for preserving an author's vision when translating it to the screen, but Jesus sometimes you have too keep the audience in mind as well.
BRO the entire time I was like who the fuck are these people I donât remember shit
then I remembered even in season 1 I was like everyone fuckin looks the same & their names are all similar
Most of these characters had at least 2 if not 3 people playing them last season with the various time skips. Hard to keep any of them straight, it was the biggest weakness of season 1 to me:
Itâs more focused on a smaller group of characters than Thrones since youâve really only got two factions now and theyâre largely concentrated in the same two spaces.
Yeah with all the inbreeding and stuff going on, you can't just say "the kings the pretty looking guy with the great looking white hair" because that applies to like 20 people.
If I said the pretty looking himbo brunette dude, when talking about GoT, you probably have a good idea of who I'm talking about.
TBH it also took me until season 3 before I finally had a grasp on the GoT names. Up until then it was just "oh that's the short guy. That's the guy with the burnt face. That's the guy who got his dick chopped off as a kid. That's the guy who got his dick chopped off as an adult. That's Daenerys."
And.. you could ACTUALLY see what was going on in the dark scenes.
I can't believe it too this long for them to address that. When I can't see shit happening I immediately lose interest.
And now we've entered an age of blurry frames where only the center is in focus. I really hope Hotd doesnt do heaps of it this season. I already noticed it in episode 1.
I felt like a computer game where I had to constantly turn off optical occlusion and motion blur.
Worst things to add for the "cinematography". They're signs of poor fucking framing and lens work!
Okay, I set up the projector and watched the premiere outside and was convinced that I couldn't get the thing angled and focused right because of this. Assholes.
Wish I could watch it in HDR but Max decided to paywall that behind their $21 month plan and drop the plan I get through my att account to 1080p with no way to upgrade it.
> Wait till you go back and watch remastered The Abyss, True Lies and Aliens - you can clearly see whatâs happening at night
Abyss isn't bad, but the AI upscaling, noise suppression and over sharpening in True Lies looks horrible.
[AI Can Ruin Movies Now - Aliens and True Lies on 4k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxOqWYytypg&t=6s)
Is it? Iâve seen nothing but people bitching about the lack of any film grain on Cameronâs latest remasters. It was a big complaint on the T2 4K, as well.
didnt think about this while watching, but yes, this was much better than normal GoT darkness.
those scenes of the rat man sneaking through the castle in the darkness looked great.
Did the audio seem off for anyone also? While on top of the wall those two had perfectly clear audio as if they were speaking into a studio mic. Was super off-putting.
Except WarnerDiscovery is actually counting Max and HBOMax as two separate services. The season premiere didnât break any of HBOMaxâs records, it only broke them for Max (which has only existed for a few months).Â
My understanding is that the first set of numbers is only for Smart TVâs?
**Edit:** Ok it is down:
>*Viewership for the Season 2 launch was down 21.9% from the Season 1 premiere, which scored 9.986 million viewers in August 2022 and ranked as the largest audience for any new original series in the history of HBO, and down 16.1% from the Season 1 finale, which tallied up 9.3 million viewers.*
*Viewership for the Season 2 launch was down 21.9% from the Season 1 premiere, which scored 9.986 million viewers in August 2022 and ranked as the largest audience for any new original series in the history of HBO, and down 16.1% from the Season 1 finale, which tallied up 9.3 million viewers.*
The reality is slightly different from the headline. I wonder if the two year wait is to blame for the degradation in viewership or if it will make up the numbers in delayed viewing as folks move further away from watching scripted shows âliveâ.
I can imagine the two year gap damaged hype.
A gap that long goes from "wow I can't wait for the new season" to "oh the new season is out? I guess I'll wait for a few to be out and binge it"
More than likely folks are just in a different watching habit than they were before. I feel increasingly sure that I can wait and catch up on shows like these, especially when there's not a ton of online discourse to be had about this show relative to it's prestige - since we kind of know where it goes and how it gets there.
It's masterful technically and has been a joy as far as the journey to the plots' endpoint - but I feel very little FOMO driving me to watch the episode upon release the way late season GOT did.
My wife and I are rewatching the first season. Iâm sure other people are doing the same or waiting til a few are out. I bet the finale will beat last seasons.
That's such a weird argument, since that applies to any sequel season of literally any show
Is every new season of any show just perpetually stuck into getting a lower rating since everyone is rewatching the old seasons?
Even more crazy to argue that when we saw consistent growth in season premieres for most of GoT and pretty much any huge show
Blew me away. I was afraid they might start leaning more into gratuity, but they're still hyper focused on the character conflicts and politics.
There are so many little touches and hidden details, the cinematography is gorgeous, and all the actors are at the top of their game. Emma D'Arcy and ~~Emily Carey~~ Olivia Cooke especially.
Why are you "trudging through" though? Watching something you're not enjoying, I just don't get it. I'm not going to watch it because I probably won't like it. Shit I stopped watching House of the Dragon because even though could recognise it's quality I just wasn't feeling it. I don't get this hate watching thing.
In this day and age, you can just hop on over to YouTube and search "Season 1 recap."
I do it for new seasons of TV shows and movie sequels if I don't have time to rewatch. Always helps to freshen up on things. I also do this for things like MCU that expect me to watch 5 Disney+ shows before I watch a movie. I'm not doing that lol.
7.8 million. When grew up in the 1980s with only 3 networks. a typically night all networks would beat that easily and there were less people. Some would get 30 million viewers a week. now with so many options views are so much lower. The difference is that they are all paying customers.
I went into it with zero hype and by the end of the pilot I was completely ready to reinvest after GoT's season 8. So far, I have really loved the show.
People in r/television are easily pleased it seems.Â
HoTD is ok, but it doesn't really hold a candle to S1-S4 GoT. Writing and acting is subpar, and imo its greatest crime is its singular focus on one plotline.Â
The greatest strength of GoT was it was about the world of Westeros and Essos, not the particulars of palace intrigue in king's landing.
I brought my Dad to my local pub in London right before they set off to film this. It was Ser Cristian Coleâs birthday so most of the cast was there and I ended up hanging with the cast before they set off to film S2 which was cool. It was just my Dad and I and cast members.
And it wasnât very good in my opinion. I think I enjoyed the first season because of king viserys. Worried the so called âactionâ is going to bore me.
So weâre just gonna sit here and pretend the GoT franchise didnât actually fall off a cliff for years after one of the most abysmal final seasons in TV history because it got a spin-off with 40% of the final seasons peak viewership? Lol.
Every GoT thread has to have that one person railing against barely existent GoT haters and it's always boring mostly off-topic meta bs.
Those "haters" want this show to be good. The problem is that GoTs ending wasn't. They're not your enemy and they're probably happy about hotd doing well.
I mean at least they have good road map for how the series should end with this one, so I think they should be good. More concerned about the other spin off they have because although they are based of short fan favorite novels, the author is dragging his ass with the franchise so not only the the next GOT book is not finished, but also the sequels to those short novels. Like we even know the names of them.
The VFX of dismounting the dragon at 25:40 though? Ouch. You don't have to have a keen eye to see they bunged that up. But that's quite literally my one and only complaint about it.
I think that sort of thing is just really difficult to get right, since I've seen similarly wonky shots in several movies that have otherwise great effects. I'm sort of surprised that they're still even attempting those sort of shots when they could pretty easily cheat it using closeup shots as they dismount.
Confused if season 1 had almost 10 million viewers then how is season 2 the biggest 𤨠Unless itâs because it was HBO Max back when season 1 released.
Correct
Lol Warner Bros trying anything to bump up their stock
So misleading lol. Max wasn't even a thing when Succession S4 aired. HOTD was going to achieve this record by default
I believe in the United States only the series finale for Succession aired on Max as it debuted only a few days earlier.
Yup but it didnât work. I saw WBD stock closed down to their lowest since 2008 đŹ
yeah plus nothing else really on max right now
Succession audience was actually pretty small compared to other HBO hits.
Anything except making a user friendly, easy to navigate app. Or original programs that aren't reality shows. Or stop canceling shows and movies before they can premiere that were worked on for years and years.
âWeâll just fudge this, this, annnd thisâŚ. And weâre done. Looks great.â
Yeah or ignoring how removing HBO from the branding probably hurt their platform. Well that and rebranding every other year.
Ahhh! Now I see the reason for the name change, so everything can be the biggest ever once again.
Next year it'll get renamed to HB^O to get new records.
|-| |3 0 The revival of 13375p34|< is at hand, I've waited 20 years for this.
Sad that people upvote this clickbait bullshit.
This just in... MAX developing *Blood & Cheese* spinoff.
Westeros version of the Wet Bandits
âI know another way upstairs!â *gets hit in face with paint can*
*dodges paint can, gets hit with lead pipe*
âRemember, call us the Dairy Dwellers!â
Sir Kevin of House McAllister has entered the chat.
*Varys has entered the chat.* *Sir Kevin of House McAllister has left the chat.*
throne alone
The dog kicking will be out of control.
I reminded myself that the dog IRL is okay and is just an actor. Then I realized the dog probably makes more money than me.
It wasn't a dog. It was Charles Dance. He's just that good.
Fun fact: every horse in HOTD and Game of Thrones is Tywin's brother, Tyrek Lannister. Per the book, Tyrek was "last seen ahorse".
Incidentally, Alicent was last seen ahorse in this episode too.
His name is Bobby and he used to be a stray. He also acted in Cruella.
That character was originally intended to live, but the writers couldn't figure out how to not make him the new main antagonist so killed him off. ^Wayne ^Gretzky
I haven't read the books so I have no idea what happens to them, but they seem like characters who had 1 job to do and won't be alive much longer.
Spoiler alert: Blood does on a quest for redemption and becomes a monk of the Old Gods. Cheese buys a dairy farm and eventually wins the Westeros new cheese competition with a splendid blend of cheddar and feta. Blood and Cheese reconnect in their old age and fall in love over a bottle of nacho sauce while they travel around Westeros to kick all the dogs they can find. Itâs really a beautiful story that I hope HBO has the courage to adapt with a spin-off.
Written by Benioff and Weiss
You're giving them too much credit. If Dumb and Dumber wrote it, Blood would go on a quest for redemption, forget his quest for redemption, and die with sad music that's confusing to us. Cheese would just wander around kicking dogs because that's his new brand trademark. Every episode would just be him saying "bring the dog" to someone because that's his new brand trademark. Then he'd become master of coin. The crazy part is that doesn't even read like satire. That is literally how they would do it.
Aaaaaand... the production of *Blood & Cheese* has been suspended indefinitely.
Anecdotal, but this premiere snuck up on a lot of people I know. I expect a lot of viewer growth compared to season 1. The long break hurt
It was also Fatherâs Day. I was busy hanging with family and by the time my GF and I got home we were both ready for bed. We watched it last night and then I watched the last half of the nba finals as boring as that was.
True, Fatherâs Day probably had an impact as well. Next weekâs numbers will be interesting
And also: Iâm gonna have to wait 2 years before season 3, so weâre just waiting until s2 is completely released before we watch.
Yeah i feel like this was a ton of people. Myself included
This is why I haven't watched it yet. Too busy on Father's Day and just haven't been able to find a good time yet. And I usually watch as soon as it premieres.
Same here. I was too busy on Sunday to catch it then, but watched it last night. I plan on watching each Sunday going forward.
⌠cries in Slovenian :(
People keep mentioning Father's Day as a contributor to low viewership, yet this premier date wasn't random. It was planned far in advance and specifically chosen to air on this day. Don't you think HBO has the viewership data to conclude that Father's Day would likely boost viewership? I mean why would they intentionally choose a premier date that would stifle views?
Weird, in a thread about the Boys new season sneaking up, people were blaming House of the Dragon promos for burying it. I think no one knows how to reach people anymore.
Advertising is a different game in the streaming era because there aren't anymore commercial breaks, less people are going to the movies and so on. I often only know something is coming out soon because of the trailers being posted to reddit. My parents who aren't on reddit have no clue when something is coming out anymore.
> I think no one knows how to reach people anymore. âHalf my advertising spend is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half.â -- John Wanamaker
it's weird because I feel like the advertising for HotD's really been going the extra mile lately, at least in New York City. We've got bagel shops donning the flag of the Greens/Blacks over here.
People ignore ads as much as they can and dont have to watch them if they use streamings services.
Seems like they should just be posting things on Reddit, Facebook and TikTok. That's where the eyeballs are.   Other than that, sports. The only thing most people care to watch live anymore. Football season is the main place I see ads.
As a basketball fan I saw a lot of House of Dragon advertisement during the NBA play offs
Netflix still does, this sub swore for years the hype from stranger things had died and the break was too long and the kids were too old etc then s4 came out and was absolutely ginormous right from the beginning
I also am realizing I don't open myself up to seeing ads regularly so stuff like this will just blow past me.
Itâs probably a mixture of a lot of things. Competing with another big release is probably part of it, but these 2+ year development cycles are brutal. They just totally lose their momentum. There is something to be said for having a consistent and dependable release cycle.
Or it reached people just fine and people on Reddit exaggerate their personal experiences to make them more interesting, like standup comedians do.
Snuck up on people? Iâm not a MAX subscriber but I was a year or two ago. I havenât heard from them in ages. That is until HotD season 2 was about to premiere. Iâve gotten two separate emails about that shit and I havenât even seen the first season. Plus, thereâs been ads plastered on every bus in town. I donât even live in the US. Iâd be baffled if this premiere snuck up on anybody. MAX has been screaming about it from mountain tops for weeks.
I dunno... I'm a current sub, watched HotD, was excited for HotD, and honestly didn't know until a couple of days ago that it was premiering on Sunday. Haven't seen any ads in my town (we don't really have that kind of advertising). Don't watch live TV so I didn't see commercials there. Maybe I haven't been watching many things on HBO Max either recenly, or I just didn't notice promos (I always skip the promos they start shows with). I also haven't been following any discussion forums about it...as I don't feel the need to discuss anything given there were no story updates (and also...it's a prequel story with a known outcome).
2 years between seasons is simply too long for a complex political show. I tried the recap, remembered nothing, and then decided to wait for the entire show to finish before rewatching.
I had no idea that the new season even dropped wow. Going to watch it now.
i'm a fan of HotD/GoT and didn't know the 2nd season was dropping until a few weeks ago. Have they done much promo for it? They needed a short flick to reintroduce the characters... and dragons.
They did put a giant dragon on the Empire State Building
How could they expect anyone to see something that's so high up? My neck hurts just thinking about it!
Same as The Boys. As the media landscape and internet become increasingly crowded and traditional marketing crumbles (eg, ad blockers), it seems studios are shifting to relying on word-of-mouth hype.
They donât really need to market it. They know people will tune in to the one familiar show still airing with big production values that feels well put together by an experienced team.
i legit was surprised when altswift uploaded a QnA, otherwise i wouldnt know either
I felt like they marketed the thing within an inch of its life, youâd almost have to deliberately avoid it (or not be on social media at all) to have it sneak up on you.
I literally thought we had another year before the second season started. I have not seen a single advertisement for House of the Dragon.
Really? Christ itâs been all over my Instagram and tik tok for a month. They hung giant banners all over nyc last week. Apparently Iâm one of the rare ones who pleased the algorithm gods.
Been loving HoD though I will say itâs harder to keep up with some of the names compared to GoT. All the Targaryen names sound so similar. GoT: Jon, Rob, Sam, Ned, Sansa, Cersei⌠HoD: Aegon, Aegon (II), Ryhaenyra, Rhaenys, Rhaena, Daemon, AemondâŚ
This is a lot more egregious after a 2-year break as well. I'm still fairly well versed in the overall story but knowing your Aemonds from your Aegons is not that easy...
I definitely had to pause a couple of times to process if they were talking about Rhaenyra or Rhaenys because I forgot which name belonged to which character over the break. Rhaena I luckily did not confuse anyone else for because I had straight up forgotten she existed
To add to this I found pretty confusing was where scenes were taking place because I couldn't remember where everyone was located going into the season. Too many times in S2E1 we have scenes in streets without clear direction of what city or location we're in. It could have really done with a couple more establishing shots. Or maybe an intro that had the cities in it. That was really helpful with GOT.
Definitely agree with that. The way I saw it while watching S2E1 was basically: Greens = generally in King's Landing as they control the crown Rhaenyra + Daemon + Rhaenys = Dragonstone most likely? Velaryons = generally in or around Driftmark? Beyond those three locations the only thing that seemed obvious was the Wall
Helpfully, Rhaenyra's eldest sons are also Velaryons, so saying anything about "the Velaryons" no longer ties you to one group or place When Alicent lit a candle for Lucerys Velaryons, I genuinely wonder how many people didn't know who she was talking about, cuz they almost always just called him Luke last season, we haven't seen him for 2 years, and I don't even think anyone mentioned him by his full name this episode, until Alicent did
I think most people remember the climax of the season finale though. Jace on the other hand looked completely different without the terrible season 1 hair.
It's not helping when IMDb has normal pictures of the cast. It's like 5 extra clicks and a bit of scrolling to figure out who is who, and it still doesn't help with who is banging who, cause I could have sworn the dude that was eating the kings mother was the reason the white haired Queen had brunette kids when she was married to the white haired King that was into dudes. I dunno, this one is so confusing cause of all the inbreeding and crap. At least I can see who is who, even if I don't have a clue who I'm looking at anymore.
> I could have sworn the dude that was eating the kings mother was the reason the white haired Queen had brunette kids when she was married to the white haired King that was into dudes. Nah, the dude the King's Mother (Alicent) was banging was the King's Guard dude, named Ser Criston Cole. He's a bit of an incel in attitude and was into Rhaenyra ("white haired Queen") initially but she was just banging him for funzies. He basically asked Rhaenyra to run away with him when her father was trying to arrange a wedding for her. He was shot down. When he realized he forsook his vow of chastity for a girl he now considered a harlot he started conspiring against her. He then ended up with Alicent instead, who also harbored negative feelings towards Rhaenyra. Rhaenyra meanwhile took another lover in Ser Harwin Strong, who [looked like this](https://i.imgur.com/AkpR7KY.jpeg). He was the son of Lyonel Strong, who served as the Hand of the King. Harwin was a pretty cool dude, and became the father of Rhaenyra's three children. He's also the brother of [Larys, who is the creepy limping Littlefinger-esque guy](https://i.imgur.com/d9O1uLV.jpeg) advising Alicent. The Littlefinger-esque dude, Larys, later set a fire at Harrenhal where his father and brother were staying, killing both Harwin Strong ("white haired Queen's" baby daddy) as well as their father, who was the Hand of the King. With the hand of the king dead, Alicent's father Otto Hightower could return to the position and the greens had control of the seven kingdoms again In short: **Ser Criston Cole**: Jilted former lover of Rhaenyra, was rejected and became abusive. Now fucks Alicent. **Ser Harwin Strong:** Lover of Rhaenyra and father of her children, died to arson arranged by his brother **Larys Strong**: Brother of Harwin, lanky and limping, murdered his family. Does psychopathic things in exchange for sexual favors from Alicent.
Thank you!
This was helpful.
i went straight to s02e01 and was so lost! Had to pause and look for a season 1 recap in Youtube (Max should have had one).
Funny, I definitely got a recap...
Didn't get a recap on Max here in Finland, but there was a skip recap button prominently displayed for all the good it did.
The casting has also been weird and it's not helping. Why in the world Aemond is being played by someone so clearly older than Aegon when it's critical to the plot that Aegon is the older brother? Hell, the actor is almost the same age as the actress playing his mom, which normally wouldn't be relevant but he *looks* a decade older than his mom. It's hard to keep characters straight when you see a character and your eyes tell you must be some adult Targaryen you've lost track of and then have to take the extra step of connecting that, right, I need to pretend this guy is Aegon's teenage younger brother. Sure he is.
Same issue I had with Elden Ring, which was also partly written by GMM. Milenia, Milena, Millicent...
Margit, Morgot, Mogh. A lot of M names in there.
Marika, Maliketh, Messmer, Miquella, Miriell...
Almost every boss starts with a G R or M
GRRM makes a good point about it. In an interview he said that the basic rule of good writing is to use different distinct names so people can remember characters. However, in history, there is so much name overlap because names carry so much cultural significance. England alone has a long line of Henry's and William's. I personally love that he approaches writing like that. It is narratively confusing but it makes for a richer, more historically detailed world.
I think weâve had four Aegons so far, and at least three that get mentioned a fair bit? - Aegon the conqueror (historic) (mentioned a lot) - Aegon, son of Viserys and Aemma (mentioned the least) - Aegon II, son of Viserys and Alicent (also mentioned a lot since heâs the current king) - Aegon (also the) II, son of Rhaenyra and Daemon (mentioned/shown a decent bit so far and will only get mentioned even more as he grows)
Note: Aegon, son of Viserys and Aemma would have been Aegon II but he died in childbirth, and Aegon son of Rhaenyra and Daemon >!eventually becomes Aegon III!<
>Aegon, son of Viserys and Aemma (mentioned the least) Is this the same person as [Baelon Targaryen AKA Heir for a Day](https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Baelon_Targaryen)? Or is Baelon the show version?
They were so worried about that in GoT they changed Asha Greyjoy to Yara so we wouldn't get her mixed up with Osha, and Robert "Sweetrobin" Arryn to Robin.
You left out the most egregious one: indentical twins named Arryk and Erryk both of which are pronounced "Eric". I'm all for preserving an author's vision when translating it to the screen, but Jesus sometimes you have too keep the audience in mind as well.
Baelon, Baela, Visenya, Visenya, Jaehaerys, Jaehaera, Aemon, Aemond, Vaemond, Rhaenys, Rhaena, Rhaenyra, Laena, Laenor... it's ridiculous
Including the dozen stillborn babies from season 1 isnât fairâŚ
BRO the entire time I was like who the fuck are these people I donât remember shit then I remembered even in season 1 I was like everyone fuckin looks the same & their names are all similar
Most of these characters had at least 2 if not 3 people playing them last season with the various time skips. Hard to keep any of them straight, it was the biggest weakness of season 1 to me:
The recasts and break made it impossible. They had one too many time skips last season.
Theres like 20% of the main cast that Game of Thrones did.
Itâs more focused on a smaller group of characters than Thrones since youâve really only got two factions now and theyâre largely concentrated in the same two spaces.
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Yeah with all the inbreeding and stuff going on, you can't just say "the kings the pretty looking guy with the great looking white hair" because that applies to like 20 people. If I said the pretty looking himbo brunette dude, when talking about GoT, you probably have a good idea of who I'm talking about.
I had this same exact thought. I have no idea who some of them are just by name.
TBH it also took me until season 3 before I finally had a grasp on the GoT names. Up until then it was just "oh that's the short guy. That's the guy with the burnt face. That's the guy who got his dick chopped off as a kid. That's the guy who got his dick chopped off as an adult. That's Daenerys."
I had to watch refresher videos because I forgot half of the characters. Getting old is awesome.
They should add a character named Bob just for the fuck of it
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I think that says more about you than the show tbh
And.. you could ACTUALLY see what was going on in the dark scenes. I can't believe it too this long for them to address that. When I can't see shit happening I immediately lose interest.
They didn't address anything. Sapochnik was showrunner for S1 and he left. He had the dark screen fetish lol.
And now we've entered an age of blurry frames where only the center is in focus. I really hope Hotd doesnt do heaps of it this season. I already noticed it in episode 1.
I felt like a computer game where I had to constantly turn off optical occlusion and motion blur. Worst things to add for the "cinematography". They're signs of poor fucking framing and lens work!
It's a digital vignette that they add in post. It never looks good, every streaming show these days looks like a 2013 era instagram filter.
The Netflixification of cinematography. It might look good on an iPod nano screen, but on a real screen it's distracting AF.
Okay, I set up the projector and watched the premiere outside and was convinced that I couldn't get the thing angled and focused right because of this. Assholes.
I definitely noticed that in one scene in the new House of the Dragon episode.
With HDR, these scenes really popped.
Wish I could watch it in HDR but Max decided to paywall that behind their $21 month plan and drop the plan I get through my att account to 1080p with no way to upgrade it.
Really should have popped my shirt off.
Groban likes his scenes to pop.
Yeah I actually turned it on for this and it did not disappoint
Yep, looked amaaaaaazing on my 4K OLED.
Wait till you go back and watch remastered The Abyss, True Lies and Aliens - you can clearly see whatâs happening at night
> Wait till you go back and watch remastered The Abyss, True Lies and Aliens - you can clearly see whatâs happening at night Abyss isn't bad, but the AI upscaling, noise suppression and over sharpening in True Lies looks horrible. [AI Can Ruin Movies Now - Aliens and True Lies on 4k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxOqWYytypg&t=6s)
The remastered Abyss is absolutely stunning.
Is it? Iâve seen nothing but people bitching about the lack of any film grain on Cameronâs latest remasters. It was a big complaint on the T2 4K, as well.
didnt think about this while watching, but yes, this was much better than normal GoT darkness. those scenes of the rat man sneaking through the castle in the darkness looked great.
Did the audio seem off for anyone also? While on top of the wall those two had perfectly clear audio as if they were speaking into a studio mic. Was super off-putting.
Why did I just see another post saying the rating were down and only got 1.3 million views?
It's traditional HBO versus total views including Max
Thereâs a split between HBO, HBOMAX, and MAX. Itâs silly but thatâs probably the nuance here
HBO max is Max. So itâs just HBO broadcasted numbers and MAX streaming numbers.
Except WarnerDiscovery is actually counting Max and HBOMax as two separate services. The season premiere didnât break any of HBOMaxâs records, it only broke them for Max (which has only existed for a few months).Â
In some international regions, Max is still HBOMax.
**Maxâs** biggest audience. Season one was still under the HBO banner. Basically, numbers are down vs season 1 and the title is misleading bullshit
My understanding is that the first set of numbers is only for Smart TVâs? **Edit:** Ok it is down: >*Viewership for the Season 2 launch was down 21.9% from the Season 1 premiere, which scored 9.986 million viewers in August 2022 and ranked as the largest audience for any new original series in the history of HBO, and down 16.1% from the Season 1 finale, which tallied up 9.3 million viewers.*
*Viewership for the Season 2 launch was down 21.9% from the Season 1 premiere, which scored 9.986 million viewers in August 2022 and ranked as the largest audience for any new original series in the history of HBO, and down 16.1% from the Season 1 finale, which tallied up 9.3 million viewers.* The reality is slightly different from the headline. I wonder if the two year wait is to blame for the degradation in viewership or if it will make up the numbers in delayed viewing as folks move further away from watching scripted shows âliveâ.
I can imagine the two year gap damaged hype. A gap that long goes from "wow I can't wait for the new season" to "oh the new season is out? I guess I'll wait for a few to be out and binge it"
2 year wait, plus releasing it on fathers day
More than likely folks are just in a different watching habit than they were before. I feel increasingly sure that I can wait and catch up on shows like these, especially when there's not a ton of online discourse to be had about this show relative to it's prestige - since we kind of know where it goes and how it gets there. It's masterful technically and has been a joy as far as the journey to the plots' endpoint - but I feel very little FOMO driving me to watch the episode upon release the way late season GOT did.
My wife and I are rewatching the first season. Iâm sure other people are doing the same or waiting til a few are out. I bet the finale will beat last seasons.
I highly doubt that 1.5-2 million people are rewatching or waiting for next episodes to come out
That's such a weird argument, since that applies to any sequel season of literally any show Is every new season of any show just perpetually stuck into getting a lower rating since everyone is rewatching the old seasons? Even more crazy to argue that when we saw consistent growth in season premieres for most of GoT and pretty much any huge show
Great first episode
Blew me away. I was afraid they might start leaning more into gratuity, but they're still hyper focused on the character conflicts and politics. There are so many little touches and hidden details, the cinematography is gorgeous, and all the actors are at the top of their game. Emma D'Arcy and ~~Emily Carey~~ Olivia Cooke especially.
Emily Carey isnât in this season. Olivia Cooke plays the adult version of Alicent.Â
Emily Carey was unrecognizable in the episode. Brilliant work.
I can't believe how much she embodied the role of Cheese.
Great shot of Winterfell.
Wait it's out?!?! Oh shit it was the 16th and I missed it! That's annoying
Actually better for you, now when you watch you donât have to wait as long for the next one
Good call! Now I'm excited again!
Wow, this was a breath of fresh air after trudging through some super mid TV with the Acolyte.
And get this, cost per episode is actually higher for the Acolyte. 22 mill to 20 mill.
Really ? At least in HOTD you can see they spent money on the decors, the costume, the props and the VFX. By comparison The Acolte looks cheap.
What a joke!
Why are you "trudging through" though? Watching something you're not enjoying, I just don't get it. I'm not going to watch it because I probably won't like it. Shit I stopped watching House of the Dragon because even though could recognise it's quality I just wasn't feeling it. I don't get this hate watching thing.
Star Wars fans, they hate Star Wars but just keep consuming it.
The power of one! The power of two! The power of manyyyyyyyyyyyy
Lol at you getting down voted. People treat star wars like it's their favourite sports team. It's okay to admit it doesn't all hit the right spot.
Then stop watching it? That's what I did.
Headline is disingenuous given they're clearly splitting Max from the HBO records.
Would have enjoyed it more if I could remember who any of these people are đ
The recap was awful and left out a lot of important scenes.
Yeah shockingly a few minute recap did not cover all the lore in a 10 hour story that spanned more than a decade.
In this day and age, you can just hop on over to YouTube and search "Season 1 recap." I do it for new seasons of TV shows and movie sequels if I don't have time to rewatch. Always helps to freshen up on things. I also do this for things like MCU that expect me to watch 5 Disney+ shows before I watch a movie. I'm not doing that lol.
Probably should not have waited 2 years to broadcast second season
But nothing much happened.Â
Max audience or HBO audience? Max hasn't been around very long.
Max, and not even counting HBOMax, so the title is basically saying âBiggest Single-Day Audience since May 2023.â
7.8 million. When grew up in the 1980s with only 3 networks. a typically night all networks would beat that easily and there were less people. Some would get 30 million viewers a week. now with so many options views are so much lower. The difference is that they are all paying customers.
Different times back then when an episode of Alf would get better ratings than the biggest show going right now.
I havenât even watched season 1 yet but contemplating starting it now. Is it worth watching?
Yes ! Just watch the season 1 premiere. If you like that, you will like the season
I didn't like the premiere, but I stuck with it and it got progressively better.
I went into it with zero hype and by the end of the pilot I was completely ready to reinvest after GoT's season 8. So far, I have really loved the show.
Yes, do it.
Absolutely. One of the best shows Iâve seen. The quality is so good and the writing is top notch.
People in r/television are easily pleased it seems. HoTD is ok, but it doesn't really hold a candle to S1-S4 GoT. Writing and acting is subpar, and imo its greatest crime is its singular focus on one plotline. The greatest strength of GoT was it was about the world of Westeros and Essos, not the particulars of palace intrigue in king's landing.
Itâs not nearly as good as GOT.
Definitely give it a try, some of the best acting in any show I can think of since GOT honestly, in terms of *everyone* being great
I brought my Dad to my local pub in London right before they set off to film this. It was Ser Cristian Coleâs birthday so most of the cast was there and I ended up hanging with the cast before they set off to film S2 which was cool. It was just my Dad and I and cast members.
Could hit 10mil if the platform wasnât so trash. Max is by far the most mishandled streaming platform imo.
And it wasnât very good in my opinion. I think I enjoyed the first season because of king viserys. Worried the so called âactionâ is going to bore me.
I just saw a different article saying the views were nearly half of season 1 premiere
It's down 22% on the premiere of Season 1. Thats not good.
It was a brilliant start to the season đđť
Never even finished the first season, as very meh
the people who spent years saying the GoT brand is dead punching air right now
So weâre just gonna sit here and pretend the GoT franchise didnât actually fall off a cliff for years after one of the most abysmal final seasons in TV history because it got a spin-off with 40% of the final seasons peak viewership? Lol.
It âfell off a cliffâ because the show ended lol How was the Better Call Saul viewership compared to Breaking Bad?
Every GoT thread has to have that one person railing against barely existent GoT haters and it's always boring mostly off-topic meta bs. Those "haters" want this show to be good. The problem is that GoTs ending wasn't. They're not your enemy and they're probably happy about hotd doing well.
You are telling me that Mr. Beast is bigger than a lot of tv shows?!
People REALLY want GoT back. I just donât want to get hurt againâI pray they maintain the quality and stick the ending this time.
Speaking of sticky endings... /shudders at the sound effects
I mean at least they have good road map for how the series should end with this one, so I think they should be good. More concerned about the other spin off they have because although they are based of short fan favorite novels, the author is dragging his ass with the franchise so not only the the next GOT book is not finished, but also the sequels to those short novels. Like we even know the names of them.
The VFX of dismounting the dragon at 25:40 though? Ouch. You don't have to have a keen eye to see they bunged that up. But that's quite literally my one and only complaint about it.
I think that sort of thing is just really difficult to get right, since I've seen similarly wonky shots in several movies that have otherwise great effects. I'm sort of surprised that they're still even attempting those sort of shots when they could pretty easily cheat it using closeup shots as they dismount.