VALE Rant incoming. I want to rant about two critiques I have about the House of the Dragon series. No, there aren't my only ones but that being said I will talk about the color grading and the amount of episodes. Sadly to those who thought I was about to write an essay about young Nrya, sorry. More on at the end. Anyways, to love something is to able to be critical of it as well.
I miss the whimsical warm lighting that was used in the Game of Thrones series. While in Westeros, the atmosphere felt warm and more like Spain or at least adjected to a Mediterranean island. The summers truly felt hot and the colors popped so much. As soon as Ned, Sansa, and Arya left Winterfell and walked under the southern sun, they had pigmentation! Gowns were vibrant, it didn't have a grey undertone to it. HotD has a grey undertone that makes it look flat! (Get her some complementary colors. She's clearly looks a little dead in those... She's not a mute palette.) I've seen bts of the HotD and without the edited color grading of the show, I saw everything in their full galore. I saw depth and brightness.
Compare (HotD) Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen above to (GoT) Sansa Stark below. These were my best finds for the least edited gifs of each other's series.
Not everything about it is terrible, ex: I like how the Red Keep looks colder after Alicent took over the décor once Viserys was too ill to mind it. The grey makes sense. Also the scenes in Dragonstone as well since the island is described as dreary with strong winds. Yet the Driftmark outdoor night scenes in S1 ep7 are pretty bad, sorry. But for the love of fuck for the sake of Pete, don't be afraid to bump up the saturation. I didn't even know Sunfyre was gold until I started writing my fic. (or that Aemond was wearing dark green this entire time, check my VALE Talk:fashion edition for that.) Like come ON! I want at least the earlier episodes of the 1st season to be more saturated to show child whimsy; the ignorance of what tragedies are about to happen.
Okay, finally, the bane of my existence, 8-10 one hour long episode seasons. AH! I hate it! I understand the reasons for this amount of eps. Such as there is a smaller cast, less diverging plots, more of a focus to the 'The Dance of the Dragons' war. Yes, I understand but I will judge. I recently saw an edit of all the Stark siblings together in the first few eps of GoT. (I sobbed but that's bc they were blissfully and ignorantly happy.) And I noticed I don't know how each family acted toward each other before the war. I want to know if Team Green sat together as a family. Did Alicent ever call a mandatory once/ bi weekly family meal? What did a grwm with Baela and Rhaena look like? Especially for the named Driftmark ward princess, what did her duties look like? Jacaerys must've trained with Daemon and was he ever tag teaming with Lucerys to beat The Rogue Prince?
I would've loved to had seen the simpler life just to feel out the characters. I think that's why it's difficult to understand them right away also. We just only see fragments of them within the larger picture of war. Maybe that's the point. It's kinda like a documentary regarding the GoT universe's past about the names we heard in that series. But I think it loses a bit of the meat in where we can't show the characters more. This heavily leans into my analyses I work on. That's why I do them, to understand the nuances of each person since we don't see it. Yet a particular character's action I just don't quite understand what the writer's perspective was. Cause of the short time we see them in normal life. Back to the episodes, it could also be my hunger for more content but I do believe that it had the ability to expand upon flaws, motivations, actions, traits.
This would've been a great opportunity to really use the beautifully crafted set pieces. Emma D'Arcy (Queen Rhaenyra) pointed out that while filming in the Dragonstone library set, they could pick up a random scroll and there'd be a full script inside with a bit of historical Valyrian text. Or that Steve Toussaint (Lord Corlys Velaryon) wanted a story of each item in his Hall of Nine so as when he looked at the treasure he had a memory to coincide and bring a believability to his performance. To have more ep would mean to draw attention to the people who built everything and to show how little C.G.I was used. The painstaking time and love everyone had on this series goes unappreciated until an obsessive person as myself comes along and screams into the void and makes a tumblr post.
Phew, VALE Rant ended for now but as long as I breathe, I shall have an opinion. Great for those who want to read these long ass essays. I should never say I'm going to write something short because I blab so much. Guys, never believe me when I say I have little to say about a thing. That is until I actually don't have a lot to say about something. But yeah not much that the production can do now I understand yet it's therapeutic to write and hopefully to read. And who knows maybe someone working on any future GoT universe projects might see this. Hi. I'm normal, just not about this.
Oh, before you scroll away, about young Nyra. I don't have a lot to point out/deduce about her but who knows maybe someone has a question or notices something. If you do want to see any young Nrya essays, ask questions you have about her character/decisions. Sorry for the forced interaction but I can't read minds. I can probably make some theories regarding young Rhaenyra and how it leads to her adulthood. Alright ta-ta.
