House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 3 "Second of His Name"

[Deck Rickard]

Laenor Velaryon, son of Coryls Velaryon and Rhaenys Targaryen he was riding Seasmoke. I think I have him in the 3rd picture up top where I posted about the armor.

Oh okay, thanks.

 

[Dr.]

"Linear" ratings fall by one million. Perhaps to do with the holiday weekend or perhaps a natural drop-off...

House of the Dragon Episode 3 Ratings: 2.5 Million Cable Viewers - Variety

 

[Weather Witch]

"Linear" ratings fall by one million. Perhaps to do with the holiday weekend or perhaps a natural drop-off...

Labor Day weekend is tough if it's not football but it could be either. Or honestly, just people watching on HBO Max, DVR, etc. instead. With nearly 25 million views in the US for episode 1, but only 3.2 linear, those numbers honestly start to mean less and less. That said, I was surprised there was no drop for episode 2, so it'd make sense that there's a decline, even without labor day.

 

[squeekness]

Also, did the Crabfeeder have grayscale? That’s what it looked like to me but if so, doesn’t it eventually just turn you into a zombie? Though maybe that takes years; I’m not sure.

I was wondering this myself but it didn't look the same as what was shown earlier on Thrones so I wasn't sure.

 

[Weather Witch]

I was wondering this myself but it didn't look the same as what was shown earlier on Thrones so I wasn't sure.

They did confirm it is an advanced case of grayscale. You can see it also took one eye, and some of his hair, in the three years of the war. Loved that detail. It slowly drives you mad, but it's not an instantaneous process. They also wanted to send Jorah away to live out his life with the Stone Men.

 

[squeekness]

They did confirm it is an advanced case of grayscale. You can see it also took one eye, and some of his hair, in the three years of the war. Loved that detail. It slowly drives you mad, but it's not an instantaneous process.

I got that, it just looked a little less.....scaley.

 

[Weather Witch]

I got that, it just looked a little less.....scaley.

Haha, that's true! I assumed he might've been burned in addition to the grayscale or something. He did keep an eye out for dragons quite a bit.

 

[Dr.]

Labor Day weekend is tough if it's not football but it could be either. Or honestly, just people watching on HBO Max, DVR, etc. instead. With nearly 25 million views in the US for episode 1, but only 3.2 linear, those numbers honestly start to mean less and less. That said, I was surprised there was no drop for episode 2, so it'd make sense that there's a decline, even without labor day.

Well, this article suggests that the delayed viewing was fairly healthy... So there you go.

‘House Of The Dragon’ Ratings On Pace With 16 Million-Plus Viewers – Deadline

 

[Weather Witch]

Well, this article suggests that the delayed viewing was fairly healthy... So there you go.

‘House Of The Dragon’ Ratings On Pace With 16 Million-Plus Viewers – Deadline

Haha, that was quick! HBO was 28.6% down and HBO Max 27% up the next day. With more people watching on HBO Max that's a net win.

 

[squeekness]

Whatever keeps the show going is fine by me.

 

[Weather Witch]

Whatever keeps the show going is fine by me.

Fair! I just really enjoy diving into like box office, viewers, and steamdb player numbers. Also makes me happy if I enjoy a show like HOTD and it's also doing well. Plus, it stings less if something does get canceled because it's often less of a surprise.

 

[Elayis]

This episode felt like a step down to me. The directing was less focused, the character motivations and arcs somewhat jumbled. The time jump's certainly aren't helping matters. And as others have mentioned, I feel like the the characters in GoT were more clearly defined and varied compared to HotD (which makes sense given GoT was drawing from several full length novels versus a short story with zero dialogue).

I still like it (and vastly prefer it to whatever's going on with TRoP), but it's not nearly the show that early GoT was. Hopefully things will improve when events start to pick up.

 

[Deck Rickard]

I feel like the problem I’m having with the show is that, so far, it’s all just power struggles and squabbling over who should be the heir to the throne. That was certainly a huge part of GoT, but what drew me in more was the mystery of the White Walkers and the return of the dragons. There was this undercurrent of mystery throughout that I found really engaging. Here, we already have dragons and they’re mostly just used as weapons, and there isn’t any other looming threat that we are aware of (aside from the White Walker threat that won’t become anything for hundreds of years). It’s a good show but I just feel like it needs something more - some more intrigue to get me excited for the next episode and so on.

 

[#root]

Little late to watching it but this episode definitely felt like a step down. One major issue was definitely the time jump which I thought was too big. It just makes it seem like the characters have been at a standstill for the past two years despite the fact that so much time has passed and so much has happened in their lives during that time. Although I still liked the character interactions especially Viserys standing up to all his lords. Actually the time jump, I still ended up enjoying most of the episode but I really didn’t like the fight at the Stepstones.

Spoiler

It felt very season 7/8 GOT where a dumb, very obvious trap succeeded because the plot needed it to. A ****ton of arrows are being shot at Daemon but nothing’s hitting him, he’s fighting 2 dozen people but they’re all attacking him one by one, the Crabffeder’s entire army apparently coming out to fight a lone Daemon, them being so focused on Daemon that they didn’t even notice a massive army coming towards or the dragon flying at them.

 

[Mjolnir Reborn]

Little late to watching it but this episode definitely felt like a step down. One major issue was definitely the time jump which I thought was too big. It just makes it seem like the characters have been at a standstill for the past two years despite the fact that so much time has passed and so much has happened in their lives during that time. Although I still liked the character interactions especially Viserys standing up to all his lords. Actually the time jump, I still ended up enjoying most of the episode but I really didn’t like the fight at the Stepstones.

Spoiler

It felt very season 7/8 GOT where a dumb, very obvious trap succeeded because the plot needed it to. A ****ton of arrows are being shot at Daemon but nothing’s hitting him, he’s fighting 2 dozen people but they’re all attacking him one by one, the Crabffeder’s entire army apparently coming out to fight a lone Daemon, them being so focused on Daemon that they didn’t even notice a massive army coming towards or the dragon flying at them.

Regarding the battle of the Stepstones I think it compares favorably with things that were earlier in the GoT show than seasons 7 and 8. I'd, for example, say that it makes more sense than the celebrated Battle of the Bastards.

The battle here has a clear logic that is stretched to being more heroic and fantastical. There are also clear cases of the characters actually paying attention to the possible risks. The Battle of the Bastards on the other hand doesn't come across as any commander actually thinking of how to use their forces properly, especially the protagonist side that actively chooses to have a battle whete there is no hope of winning. It lacks the calculated risks of the Stepstones.

Even the main character of each case is to the advantage of HotD as what Daemon does aligns with his nature and has some thought behind it, while Jon acted uncharacteristically and actually to the pure detriment to his allies.

So I think this episode works quite well when compared to plenty of things in GoT.