The COVID-19-related pause on production of House of the Dragon, the Targaryen-centered spinoff of Game of Thrones, is long gone — hopefully for the first and only time — as some really intriguing filming was spotted in Derbyshire, England last week.
The Daily Mail reported that Olivia Cooke, cast as Queen Alicent Hightower, and Australian actress Milly Alcock, who will take on the role of the young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, were spotted on set, with Alcock sporting what looks to be dragonriding gear and Cooke clad in an elegant, pale green gown (I’m guessing a not-subtle nod to “the Greens”). The two were filming several scenes together, with the article noting that in one of them, Rhaenyra had been seen “saying goodbye to a dragon on screen.”
Also spotted — though not in any scenes with Alcock — was Emily Carey, who will portray the younger version of Alicent. This filming further supports the theory that HotD will use many flashbacks or multiple timelines in telling the story of the Dance of the Dragons, the Targaryen civil war that signaled the beginning of the end for the dragonriding dynasty (even though it would take another 130 or so years). Personally, I think it’s an excellent approach — with all of the characters passing in and out of the Dance storyline and the number of years over which it takes place, it would be difficult to show that with a cast that doesn’t really age.
In addition, Graham McTavish was seen on set in full armor and on horseback, surrounded by lots of bones — most of which were looking quite charred. And although McTavish’s role hasn’t been revealed yet, you don’t have to zoom in too closely to see the Targaryen sigils and red fringe sported by his mount.
I’m not sure who McTavish is portraying — there’s a chance it could be Ser Steffon Darklyn, a member of the Kingsguard during the reign of King Viserys I Targaryen (Rhaenyra’s father) who escaped King’s Landing when Aegon II Targaryen (son of Viserys and Alicent Hightower) usurped the Iron Throne. Darklyn joined Rhaenyra on Dragonstone, bringing with him the crown worn by Viserys I, allowing for her coronation on the island. He also served as the first Lord Commander of her Queensguard. It’s not an insignificant role in the Dance, but if that’s the case, why continue to keep his role under wraps? Regardless, the Daily Mail article has some really interesting photos from the filming, so I highly suggest taking a look!
Lastly, it was announced that veteran actor Tony Woodhead has joined the HotD cast in the role of “Rylan Mallister.” Although House Mallister is a real one in the world of Westeros — they’re a Riverlands House sworn to House Tully — there’s no character named Rylan in any of George R.R. Martin’s writings. However, there is a “Lymond Mallister” who plays a part in Fire & Blood (Martin’s history of the Targaryens on which HotD is based). And while we’re on the topic, get a load of the Riverlands-esque, could-have-played-a-young-Brynden-Blackfish-Tully appearance of this guy:
Tony Woodhead pic.twitter.com/jMXwJyV6TN
script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js">— Crown_For_A_King (@Crown_ForAKing) August 25, 2021
Lymond unseats Ser Criston Cole, a key character in this whole drama, at a tournament celebrating the ascension of Viserys I Targaryen to the Iron Throne (actor Fabien Frankel has been cast as Cole). It’s the same tournament where Cole defeats Rhaenyra’s uncle, Daemon Targaryen (former Dr. Who Matt Smith), and wins the favor of the young princess, beginning a relationship (allegedly, anyway) that will become significant later as the war for the throne heats up.
Who do you think McTavish is playing? And what are your thoughts on the rest of this recent news? Let us know in the comments!
Graham McTavish looks amazing.
”Lymond unseats Ser Criston Cole, a key character in this whole drama, at a tournament celebrating the ascension of Viserys I Targaryen to the Iron Throne (actor Fabien Frankel has been cast as Cole). It’s the same tournament where Cole defeats Rhaenyra’s uncle, Daemon Targaryen (former Dr. Who Matt Smith), and wins the favor of the young princess, beginning a relationship (allegedly, anyway) that will become significant later as the war for the throne heats up…”
Spoiler ❓Alert
Isn’t Ser Criston Cole the guy who
While I haven’t read the source material, it’s my understanding that even in GRRM’s canon there are conflicting accounts of the “alleged”relationship between Cole and Princess Rhaenyra, e.g.
Just spitballing here, but if HotD features one-sided relationships, unrequited love, romantic triangles, bed-hopping rascals, jilted suitors, vengeful exes, and the like…
Count me in!
Call me shallow. I’m a sucker for well-written, well-acted love stories with complicated romantic entanglements and steamy scenes with photogenic actors. I wouldn’t mind seeing that Blackfish-resembling Tony Woodhead fellow and Fabien Frankel as Cristin Cole vying for the affections of Princess Rhaenyra or Queen Alicent.
Maybe throw Matt Smith into the mix as well.
(Dragon dogfights? Nah. I reached my Dragon Saturation Point by mid-S7 of GoT…)
”And what are your thoughts on the rest of this recent news? Let us know in the comments!”
From those Daily Mail photographs of Rhaenyra and Alicent on set… why do I find myself underwhelmed by the costume design? It looks like they’re wearing old shmatas and drab housecoats.
Maybe I’ve just been spoiled by Michele Clapton and GoT…
“…some really intriguing filming was spotted in Derbyshire, England last week.“
Forgive me…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyKG8dZzkTc&pp=QACIAgA%3D
Ten Bears,
Not quite. He was a genuine supporter of Rhaenyra’s and had genuine affection for her (what kind of affection is disputed — one side says it remained a platonic love for the little girl Cole knew her as while another side claims it grew less platonic as Rhaenyra grew into a woman) but later on, a fiasco happened between them and that’s when Cole switched to the Greens — they were both angry and furious with each other.
I’m not aware of any one-sided relationships between the characters of Fire & Blood but, from this, I think Rhaenyra and Cole would be a case of vengeful exes.
I wonder if Rylan is meant to be Lymond much like GoT’s Yara was ASOIAF’s Asha (to help differentiate between Osha and Asha). Off the top of my head, I can’t currently remember the names of characters during this period who may have similar names to ‘Lymond’ to require this name change…
I’ve never considered Derbyshire to be a ‘miserable’ county. *Without saying too much I live in a county which abuts Derbyshire (but I’m not going to go there in hopes of finding a HoD filming crew!!!!). The Derby Dales are lovely and my parents were living in Derby when they met – and in fact my Dad asked my Mum to marry him in the Derby Dales. It’s nice to have some fresh news as there hadn’t been a new article posted here since July. I’m not going to judge the quality of the frocks because the photographs were taken from a distance. I’ve sometimes watched Costume Co’s videos and from what she said some of the fabrics used in the original GoT were expensive.
I have intermittently watched Kim Dave’s channel for her pattern drafting tutorials (not that I’ve done anything too difficult) – here she shows a pleating machine. The company involved pleated some of Dany’s dresses for GoT.https://youtu.be/Dv79rcgZBOw
* Mind you I may have said things which gave away my approximate location in the past.
When does filming run until? I ask as the government is rumoured to be considering a 2 week soft lockdown through October which may lead to some delays. My gut feel is this is unlikely and we will probably go back to mandatory masks and potentially the use of vaccine passports for certain venues but it could delay filming if it does happen.
Dame of Mercia,
”I’ve never considered Derbyshire to be a ‘miserable’ county.”
My apologies. I didn’t mean to imply that. In context, in the clip from the movie, “the miserable half” of Derbyshire is a punchline to a quip about a sullen-looking Mr. Darcy:
Lizzie: “So which of the painted peacocks is our Mr. Bingley?”
Charlotte: “He is on the right, and on the left is his sister.”
Lizzie: “And the person with the quizzical brow?”
Charlotte: “That is his good friend, Mr. Darcy.”
Lizzie: “He looks miserabIe, poor soul.”
Charlotte: “MiserabIe he may be, but poor he most certainly is not.”
Lizzie: “TeIl me.”
Charlotte: “Ten thousand a year and he owns half of Derbyshire.”
Lizzie: “The miserable half?”
(They both giggle)
I mentioned in an earlier post that I believe Daily Mail was wrong about Olivia Cooke. I don’t think she was the one in the blue dress in the first photo. I think that was Emily Carey. She does resemble Olivia, which is excellent casting.
Ten Bears mentioned he was disappointed with Emily Carey’s costume. I’m sure this scene was before she was married and queen. She’s probably supposed to be a young teenager. The Hightowers may not have been poor, but they probably didn’t have the wealth of a queen yet. Perhaps the choice of costume has more to do with her status at the time and that she is still a teenager? Does anyone know how wealthy the Hightowers were before Alicent married?
It looks like Milly is sporting her riding clothes with long coat and gloves, similar to Dany.
TB, sorry if I took the words about Derbys too literally. I like P&P but don’t know it off by heart.
With Alcock and Cooke on the same scene, I think we can put to rest the theory that Rhaenyra and Alicent will be the same age.
Excited to see the presumptive Kingsuard attire!
I’m actually feeling the same regarding what actress is there on screen…. I’m not sure if it’s Olivia Cooke on that image. Looks very young.
Tywin of the Hill,
Actually, the Mail have since corrected their article and noted that it’s Emily Carey in the carriage not Olivia Cooke, appearing in the same scene as Milly Alcock, so this actually confirms they will be similar in age as originally thought.
Geeesh…someone’s got an appetite…I mean all those bones! Seriously though, of course these being images without a context, not anchored in any way by the storyline or characters…they don’t mean much, but even so, with all that said, something just feels underwhelming about this entire effort. Nevermind the whole spiel of “been there done that”.
I hope I am wrong about this, but as time passes my interest in this series is
waning. Just as with the ASOIF novels. I bought “A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms” years ago and couldn’t even be bothered to read it. And I’m definitely not interested in “Fire And Blood”. The only constant which has remained is GOT itself. That’s it.
I found “A Night of the Seven Kingdoms” quite enjoyable. Since they are novellas (Dunk and Egg stories), reading doesn’t require the time commitment that is needed with the 1000+ page volumes. The narrative style was much more engaging for me than the drier historical narrative style used in Fire and Blood and the Princess and the Queen novella.
I agree that as the show (and last ADWD book) get further in the distance, it’s natural that interest can wane. What excites me is to have a new show with similar qualities to GOT. GOT had “high thread count” scenes as Ten Bears calls them. I call them scenes that develop characters that pull you in. Characters can do horrible things but we still care for them. I do hope they don’t obsess over the dragon special effects. The riding scenes were probably my least favorite scenes in GOT. However, the special effects were effective and extremely well done. I especially appreciated the work they did to recreate Kings Landing and then burn it down. Even if some didn’t agree with the plot line, the production was amazing. Anyway, I’m greatly looking forward to seeing how the prequel unfolds onscreen. I’m hoping we get plenty of high thread count scenes with the younger characters as their relationship was developing. It will be interesting to see them show the younger and older versions of themselves.
loco73,
A brief teaser, even if only two or three seconds of Alicent and Rhaenyra in action, might be nice to whet fans’ appetites. There are going to be enough TV shows and movies on various platforms competing for everyone’s attention as it is.
[Slightly Off-Topic] Along those lines, I couldn’t help but get psyched when I saw ex-Sand Snake Jessica Henwick in this trailer for “The Matrix: Resurrections.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ix7TUGVYIo
(Jessica Henwick, at 1:17).
Nicely put. Thanks for the reply and the feedback. You know what I think it can also be? There is soo much content outhere now, especially on account of all the streaming services. It can get pretty tedious to wade through all of it and choose something worth watching. Now, granted most of what is available rates somewhere between awful and mediocre in terms of quality…but in terms of quantity there is a ton of it…for better or worse. Just think, a decade ago there were plenty of shows… but really epic grandscale ones…it was really “The Walking Dead” and “Game Of Thrones” that were the outsized behemoths. Now all the “newness” is gone. And as good as HOTD may turn out to be…it won’t, I think, be able to recreate that feeling of excitement and even awe, LOL, I felt when I saw that first frames of GOT at The Wall…
Ten Bears,
You’re not alone. We were terribly spoiled by Michele Clapton!
Saner Half and I have finally gotten around to watching The Crown, and we’re still in S1—for which Clapton did the costume design. He’s been loving them (along with the cinematography and locales). I of course had to tell him who was responsible, and he of course had to good-naturedly roll his eyes at me…
I love Clapton’s work. Sansa’s Queen dress was a masterpiece. And there were lots of others. I was never a big fan of Dany’s winter coat even though Emilia looked amazing in it. The coat looked out of place to me for some reason. I think I thought it was just too well made for the technology that would be available in ASOIAF world. I can’t imagine a Dothraki coat maker would be able to put something like that together.
The costume designer for tHotD is also very good. Jany Temime is probably best known for a number of the Harry Potter films. A notable recent film is Black Widow. She was nominated for Judy (I think there were some elaborate Vegas costumes in that one). She’s also known for the costumes in the Bond film Skyfall. I see a couple big box office sci fi films including Passenger and Gravity in her portfolio. She won awards for a 1997 film House of America. I can’t find many photos from that one. I think it’s mostly street wear. Anyway, I look forward to seeing what she can do.
I agree that there has been an explosion of original made for streaming series. Netflix, Amazon and others discovered they have to create their own content to keep customers. They can’t just play other movies and differentiate themselves. But because of this they throw a ton of money on projects that are crap. I’ve blocked most of the bad Netflix shows out of my memory. They were just throwing money at everything and anything. They destroyed Iron Fist (for example). There were some GOT actor connections in that one. Jessica Henwick was the bright star of the production. Finn Jones was just frikin awful IMHO. I did manage to make it through all of the episodes, but it was mostly because of Henwick. I think they just have so much money they threw it at anything that could possibly have a chance. And all of that bad TV has an effect on people after awhile. I think they are alot less likely to try a new show after seeing so many bad ones.
Since GOT, I’ve enjoyed His Dark Materials (HBO). It’s not perfect by any means, but it was a good effort. I’m looking forward to season 3. However, they cut so many corners in season 2. They did too many things off screen and missed the boat on visualizing some of the book fantasy elements. I’m a bit scared for season 3, since they need the most special effects and vision to pull off the characters and scenes from the third book.
I enjoyed Warrior Nun, even though it was super bad.
On the better side was Shadow and Bone and The Witcher. The Witcher definitely kept my interest. Shadow and Bone had its moments for me and was interesting, but it was no GOT (again in my humble opinion).
Carnival Row was another one where I had high hopes. It lost me somewhere along the way, even though I loved the premise and I felt drawn in by the actors/actresses. It lost me somewhere. I may rewatch that series to figure out what went wrong.
I haven’t felt myself become an obsessed fan for any of those shows. I’ve rarely been a fan of anything. I have had a few sports teams that I followed but I never obsessed over them. GOT was really the first time that I can say I just couldn’t get enough and I wanted to learn everything about it. His Dark Materials is probably the closest next in line in my obsession category, but the show (including acting) wasn’t nearly at the level of GOT (again IMHO). I still look forward to seeing season 3 of HDM.
Tron79,
For me the best show I’ve seen in awhile, past few years I’d say, was definitely “Shadow And Bone”. I haven’t read the novels which comprise the “Grishaverse”. So I cannot speak on that. I’ve read some on-line info here and there to get a better idea of the world, characters and mythology etc. But I love the show. Not perfect by any means, but a solid start with a lot of promise for future seasons (Netflix renewed it for a second season…but I never bet anything on those guys because recently they haven’t been reliable in terms of a show getting a full run).
I personally liked “Carnival Row”. I found the world and mythology of the show rich and thoroughly immersive. I am most definitely not a fan of Cara Delevingne, but here I found her to be OK…and therefore tolerable. The show is definitely uneven, but the scale of it, the high production values and it’s attention to detail, made it an entertaining watch. And it’s themes are quite positive as well… although at times non too subtle and a bit on the preachy side. My biggest problem is that it has been two years since the first season premiered. And so far not a lot of information about the second season. No updates or an inkling on an airdate for the second season. I know it was renewed and that they were gearing up to start filming. Definitely delayed by the pandemic. Still this is a very long time between seasons.
I liked Finn Jones as Iron Fist, I watched the series, along with all the other Netflix-Marvel shows. Of course Jessica Henwick was excellent and a large part of why I liked the show, which is admittedly the weaker of it’s counterparts.
At this point I am honestly looking forward more to the second season of “Shadow And Bone” than the first season of “House Of The Dragon”…
PS I am glad “Shadow And Bone” is not GOT and is not trying to be. That would have been a huge mistake. It doesn’t need to because it can stand on its own merits and quality.
I will agree to disagree on Finn Jones, but I did enjoy Shadow and Bone. I think they showed the scene in the field holding hands way too many times though.
I’m going to rewatch Carnival Row. It’s been awhile now since I saw it. I can’t believe it’s been 2 years already!! Wow. It was a bit preachy, but I don’t think I minded that part. The opening credit art of the fairies are coming back to me now. That was another show that had memorable opening credits (like GOT) and a good theme song.
For me, I’m looking more forward to HotD than Shadow and Bone, but I don’t mind disagreeing. It don’t think HotD is going to be anything revolutionary though. But it will be in the GOT universe. It has Sapochnik directing, which makes me happy. Ramin Djawadi is doing the score which makes me very happy. The casting looks intriguing too.
Tron79,
Thank you so much for all this background info!!!
Sure. Here’s a list of what we know so far for the cast and some of the notable others… I know it’s been mentioned in various articles already. After going through all of these, I’m intrigued by Sonoya Mizuno playing Mysario. She should have alot of screen time with Matt Smith if I know my Mysario character.
I’ll add what they are BKF (Best Known For)
Milly Alcock playing: Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen BKF: Upright
Emma D’Arcy playing: Rhaenyra Targaryen BKF: Truth Seekers
Emily Carey playing: Young Alicent Hightower BKF: Wonder Woman (young Diana)
Olivia Cooke playing: Alicent Hightower BKF: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (that’s my personal favorite of hers. Most will know her more from Ready Player One or Vanity Fair
Matt Smith playing: Daemon Targaryen BKF: Dr. Who (and The Crown) LKF (Little Known Fact) he played along with Lena Headey in the blockbuster film Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Eve Best playing: Princess Rhaenys Velaryon BKF: Hard to pick just one…The King’s Speech, Nurse Jackie, I watched her recently in Fate: The Winx Saga.
Paddy Considine playing: Viserys Targaryen BKF: Dead Man’s Shoes ,Peaky Blinders, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
Fabien Frankel playing: Criston Cole BKF: The Serpent
Rhys Ifans playing: Otto Hightower BKF: The Lizard/Dr. Curt in The Amazing Spider Man,
Graham McTavish playing: Harrold Westerling (head of the kings guard. He has nice armor in the photo above!) BKF: Hard to pick just one or two: The Hobbit, The Witcher, Outlander
Sonoya Mizuno playing: Mysaria BKF: Ex Machina, Maniac (Netflix, one of my all time favorite series).
Steve Toussaint playing: Lord Corlys Velaryon BKF: Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Judge Dredd, Shooting Dogs
Writers:
Ryan J. Condal BKF: The Colony, Hercules
Charmaine De Grate BKF: Daisy Jones and The Six
Directors:
(Sapochnik isn’t directing all of the episodes. He is exec producer and showrunner on all of them. Here are the directors we know so far)
Clare Kilner BKF: How to Deal (2003) and The Wedding Date (2005), The Alienist (2020), Snowpiercer (2021).
Geeta V. Patel BKF: Meet the Patels, The Great
Miguel Sapochnik BKF: Game of Thrones, Repo Men, TV shows: House and Fringe
Greg Yaitanes BKF: (also worked on House as did Sapo), Damages, Lost, Prison Break, Heroes, Grey's Anatomy, Banshee
Music Ramin Djawadi BKF: Game of Thrones, Prison Break, Person of Interest, Westworld, Pacific Rim, Iron Man, and Warcraft.
Not to do with HoD but Ciaran Hinds (Mance) features with some other Irish and UK actors of competence in Kenneth Branagh’s new film ‘Belfast’. Link to the trailer:- https://youtu.be/Ja3PPOnJQ2k
Dame of Mercia,
Uhhh thanks for that! I’ve been a fan of Ciarán Hinds for years now, especially due to his role as Caesar im HBO’s “ROME”. Even though as Mance Rayder he only appeared in a handful of GOT episodes, he made that count.
“The freedom to make my own mistakes was all I ever wanted.” Mance Rayder
Tron79,
I’d like to add that Ramin Djawadi also composed the soundtrack for the Guillermo Del Toro created, directed and produced series “The Strain”. Excellent but chilling stuff, given the subject matter.
Wow, I may have to watch it just so I can hear the soundtrack!! Thinking about “The Strain”, it made me think of vampires and a movie called “Let Me In.” It’s one of Chloë Grace Moretz’ earlier films. She plays a child vampire with no shoes. It was actually very effective, creepy and immersive. I’ve watched it a couple of times. I wish there was a GOT tie in, but I don’t think there is one. Although I think Maisie Williams could play a young vampire if she so desired. She’s already played a werewolf.
Tron79,
This is just a small sample from Ramin Djawadi and his work on “The Strain”. Mind you he was working on “The Strain” at almost the same time as he was working on the GOT soundtrack as well. By the way that is the poster for the show and it looks creepy as hell…
Tron79,
The only other tie-in from “The Strain” to GOT I can think of besides Ramin Djawadi doing the soundtrack is David Bradley aka Walder Frey himself who plays one of the main characters Abraham Setrakian.
I’m not saying watch the whole thing but at 1:20:00 ish Keith Allen (Alfie’s dad) pops up in this late 1980s-early 1990s British show, ‘Making Out’. https://youtu.be/RlrXrs_YGB8 Susan Brown (Septa Mordane) was also in the show but not sure if she’s in these episodes.
Tron79,
I think “Let Me In” was a remake of an excellent Swedish film. “Let the Eight One In.”
Wow I didn’t realize that!
Tron79,
Typo! (Damn Auto Correct!)
The name of the Swedish movie was “Let the Right One In.” As I recall, the Chloe Grace Moretz remake “Let Me In” was pretty much the same exact movie, beat for beat. I kind of liked the original a bit better – maybe because the young actress who played the child vampire was a bit…spookier, and the swimming pool scene (when the bullies were trying to drown the boy) was more dramatic.
P.S. I concur that
I could definitely see her playing that role.
I wonder when “Pistol” is going to be released. That’s the official name of the series
Tron79,
FYI: In the Comments Section two posts back (“House of the Dragon’ pauses UK filming due to positive COVID-19 case”), I just embedded links to photos from the Met Gala in NY two nights ago,
A bit off-topic but seeing that discussion between Tron and loco up there regarding whether GoT interest wanes over time, I started to realize with myself that my (first full) GoT rewatch is likely approaching. While I’ve been commenting here in past year+ and kind of wanted to be active here from fandom perspective, I didn’t feel any desire to rewatch GoT… not yet. But in recent weeks, I feel my interest for GoT itself sparking again. I realize I’m thinking more and more about the characters and episodes again, being in some expectation to experience it again… so this makes me really think it will probably be time soon that I re-experience the journey again. It makes sense to me because it’s been over 2 years now since I last watched GoT (not counting a couple episodes I watched with my girlfriend during my visits) which is about the same amount of time that usually passes between my rewatches of LOST (my favorite TV show) and I know from those rewatches that my interest actually never wanes, but I do need this “recharge” time after completing a rewatch to make sure my mind is fresh again when it’s time for next rewatch.
First rewatch is always a unique experience for me because by knowing how the story unfolds and ends for characters, scenes or character moments that I may have not paid attention to during original watch can now become very significant for me. When it comes to those TV shows that I really love, emotional impact usually only deepens for me with rewatches so I’m very much looking forward of seeing GoT through “rewatch” eyes and with the ending in mind.
I don’t know when I’ll start because I’m currently watching Supernatural and THe Office for the first time, and also rewatching Sopranos. But when I do, I may occassionally post some brief thoughts and impressions here in the comments as I go along with the rewatch. Because when I’m rewatching something I like this much, my mind is completely immersed in it.
Okay, nerdy rambling over
Erik, formerly Lord Parramandas,
For me is not the interest in the series that is waning. It is in the books aka the whole ASOIF cycle. Just like I’ve pretty much given up on Patrick Rothfuss and his “Kingkiller Chronicle” (the dude is writing a trilogy…but much like The GRRM… his last book in it is a decade overdue). It’s just really not worth sticking around anymore. Besides there are soo many other good and interesting books to read outhere and I’ve got a stack of them waiting. If I ever again undertake reading another sci-fi or fantasy series, I’ll only do so if it is complete or if the writer shows an ability or desire to actually finish what they started.
Now that “Game Of Thrones” had been off the air for over two years, much like you I’m prepping to do a full re-watch. I did one years ago after Season Seven aired. I watched the entire series, on DVD, at the time in preparation for Season Eight. Save a few clips here and there, I haven’t seen the show…well in over two years.
I’m doing the re-watch the long way around. Before I devour my complete GOT Blu-ray set, I’m watching other historical and fantasy movies and series epics. I’m currently in the midst of watching HBO’s “ROME”. Then I’ll do movie some combinations (because weirdly enough they kind of go together if you watch them together, like “The Kingdom Of Heaven”/”Robin Hood” (2010), “Centurion” (directed by our own Neil Marshall)/The Eagle”,. I’ll revisit “Gladiator” and “The Fall Of The Roman Empire” (of which “Gladiator” is basically a remake of). I’ll take another look at “King Arthur” (2004) with Stephen Dillane himself as Merlin. Then I’m doing the whole “The Hobbit”/”The Lord Of The Rings” (extended versions) trilogies bit. And then if the world hasn’t ended in the meantime it’s GOT time!
loco73,
Oh I agree about the ASOIAF novels… my interest into them heavily waned in past 5-6 years and I used to be heavily invested into it during my highschool years. I read the first ASOIAF novel for the first time a couple months before GoT S1 aired in 2011 (and that’s how I got to know about the upcoming TV show in first place). Second novel followed shortly after, and third novel during S1 air… AFFC got released here in Slovenia in late 2011 and ADWD in summer 2012… I actually ended buying both of these in hardcover, even preordering ADWD and getting it a few days before it was formally released in bookstores.
While I was always more of a TV show guy when it came to GoT, I had this tradition during my 2nd, 3rd and 4th highschool year (the release of 2nd, 3rd and 4th GoT season) when I always re-read the ASOIAF novels through the year while waiting for the next GoT and I was always so immersed in first three novels… they were big pleasure to read and re-read. Admittedly I wasn’t fond of AFFC and ADWD, certainly not on re-reads compared to first three novels. But I always included them in my readings because I was in expectation for upcoming 6th and 7th novels and I wished to have a complete journey. Just as when I rewatch some of my favorite TV shows and never skip any episode, even if some of them are dull or so.
But as much as I’ve always remained a big nerd for TV show, my interest in novels themselves started to wane, especially with release of S5 which left me alienated from 4th and 5th novel… I lost my desire to ever re-read those two because I realized I don’t need to “torment” myself through that bloated text anymore as one of my main reasons why I enjoyed reading first three novels was being in expectation for written events to unfold on screen while there still being enough differences in story that the two media weren’t just a copy of each other. But with me enjoying 5th season a lot and already not being fond of 4th/5th novel even before S5 release and if I’m honest to admit that I didn’t really end up missing any scene from those two novels on TV… I think it’s self-explainatory why I lost desire for AFFC/ADWD reading. And of course, my ASOIAF spark may have been rekindled if TWOW and ADOS were released but by becoming more and more obvious those two are nowhere in sight and the TV show overtaking them, my investment in written novels was rapidly fading away to the point that I started getting annoyed if they were even brought up in these later seasons where the story clearly overtook them.
I think I will still re-read first three novels from time to time, potentially at similar time when I do rewatches. They’re still entertaining on their own to me and I can heavily draw paralels to TV show when reading it while enjoying them as separate versions of the story. But it makes me sad now, knowing that 2011-2014 years will never repeat for me again when it comes to my entertainment of the novels. Even more, I feel sorry that I own 4th and 5th book in hardcover form and Slovenian translation, but I don’t own the first three novels, not counting three paperback books in original English (my brother purchased them in 2012 but never really got to read them) that are already falling apart and are not even “enjoyable” for me to read due to them being so small in size. Bookstores don’t sell hardcover ASOIAF books anymore and it really annoys me because I would be happy to own the first three. But now I’m stuck with 4th and 5th novel which I imagine will never read again… their purpose now is serve as elevating support for my computer monitor.
loco73,
And yes, I’m wary now myself of ever commiting myself to an epic book series without all novels being released or at least being obvious that the author would finish them. Just like I have this unwritten rule when watching new TV shows that I wait until there’s 2 or 3 seasons confirmed to be released.
I actually used to rewatch GoT before every new season got released but now that the TV show is finished, I think it will become “seasonal watching” for me… watching it every few years or so when I get to “recharge”.