Archive for the ‘TV’ Category

For Your Situational Awareness: House of the Dragon Geography

Posted: April 27, 2024 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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We’re another month closer to the premiere of the second season of HBO’s House of the Dragon. I’m trying to ease in to writing about the show, one blog post a month. HBO helped me out last month by releasing two trailers for the season, featuring the opposing perspective of the two factions: the Blacks and the Greens. My write-up of the trailer for my dad counted as my monthly blog post submission.

This month – since the show doesn’t have the cool traversing-the-globe opening credit sequence that Game of Thrones had – I wanted to lay out some of the geography for those not fully up on where things are located in Westeros.

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House of the Dragons’ Dueling Trailers (a Trailer Breakdown for My Dad)

Posted: March 24, 2024 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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The last trailer for the second season of HBO’s House of the Dragon came out in December 2023. We’ve been patiently waiting for a new trailer to drop, and HBO obliged recently with not one trailer, but two.

When these opportunities arise, I like to write up trailer breakdowns for my dad. He’s read the main series books and has seen Game of Thrones and has watched House of the Dragon, season one. But I like to provide him with a non-spoilery breakdown to get him pumped up. And that’s what I’ll be doing here too.

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Rhaenyra’s Ex-Boyfriend and X-ed Boyfriend

Posted: February 17, 2024 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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We’re another month closer to Season Two of HBO’s House of the Dragon, but there’s still plenty of time to write about Season One. In particular, about two men in Princess Rhaenyra’s –

Rhaenyra Targaryen: That’s Queen Rhaenyra, thank you.
Me: My bad, I’m sorry Your Grace.

– about two men in Queen Rhaenyra’s dating history – Ser Criston Cole and Ser Harwin Strong.

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Rhaenyra and Relationship Roulette

Posted: January 31, 2024 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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HBO’s House of the Dragon will be returning this Summer, and with it return the complicated relationships between its major players. Complicated Relationships is an illustrative phrase when describing Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen’s role in the show.

Rhaenyra: That’s Queen Rhaenyra, actually.
Me: I regret my error.

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The Dad-Focused Breakdown of the House of the Dragon (Season 2) Teaser Trailer

Posted: December 3, 2023 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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On Saturday, December 2nd, 2023, HBO released a teaser trailer for their upcoming Summer 2024 show House of the Dragon, airing its second season. Within hours, trailer breakdowns were crafted by the usual explainers – that’s awesome to see. But none of them, I feel, are going to be suitable for my dad.

Dad Sponaugle has read all of the main A Song of Ice and Fire books, has seen Game of Thrones, but hasn’t read Fire and Blood. It wasn’t hard to get him to watch House of the Dragon, but I wanted him to see the show with at least some context – non-spoilery context, so for Season One I wrote up trailer breakdowns as they came out.

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In Defense of Otto Hightower

Posted: September 10, 2022 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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So, here’s some background. After the third episode of House of the Dragon, I felt some sympathy for Otto Hightower, and as a joke I tweeted (as one does…)

New Draft: In Defense of Otto Hightower

People got so crazy about that, it was clear that I had just committed myself to writing an Otto Hightower defense.

The good folks at Watchers on the Wall did not deny me when I suggested this as a feature article, and the die was cast.

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Regarding the Kingsguard

Posted: September 3, 2022 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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House of the Dragon, HBO’s next series set in George RR Martin’s Seven Kingdoms (more or less Seven) is now airing, and I’ve been fortunate enough to resume my role as occasional contributor to the Game of Thrones-centric fansite Watchers on the Wall.

The second episode featured the crown’s heir-designate Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, tasked to choose a replacement Kingsguard, to fill in an absence. I felt that this was a good opportunity to talk about the institution of the Kingsguard. Look, this might sound dull, but I’m a funny writer. My dad will back me up.

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You Are All Cursed With Me

Posted: August 26, 2022 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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Daemon Targaryen: You are all cursed with me.
Viserys Targaryen: OR NOT!
Daemon: (Somehow, still cursed. Trust me.)

Hey, with House of the Dragon, the prequel/successor series to HBO’s Game of Thrones airing, I re-started my avocation of writing articles about the show for Watchers on the Wall, the Game of Thrones fan site.

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DAD! Here’s a breakdown of the final House of the Dragon trailer for you!

Posted: July 23, 2022 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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HBO, roughly a month before the new show House of the Dragon is set to premiere, released a final trailer for the show. They’ve previously released two teaser trailers and a series of character photos. Because my dad has read the A Song of Ice and Fire books and seen the Game of Thrones adaptation on HBO, but has not read Fire and Blood – the Targaryen history – to provide him baseline context for the upcoming show, I’ve been making non-spoilery (or, very light-spoilery) posts that focused on the trailers.

This is one of those posts. It’s long, because the trailer had close to 100 shots to present and talk about.

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The Dad-Focused Breakdown of the May 2022 House of the Dragon Trailer

Posted: May 5, 2022 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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Wow, the titles are getting long on these posts.

HBO once again released a trailer for their upcoming House of the Dragon show, a series that takes place roughly 150-170 years before the time period of Game of Thrones. (I’m giving myself a fudge on the dates because there are two different time periods that will be shown. AT LEAST two different time periods. Since we have two different actors playing younger and older versions of two of the characters.) I covered the previous trailer and the series of cast photos that was released a few months ago here on the blog, specifically designed for my dad.

My dad has read the main series books – A Song of Ice and Fire, but has not read the Targaryen history volume Fire and Blood (part 1 – there is no part 2 yet) that House of the Dragon is drawing on. So I’ve been wanting to provide him with some casual context. Mostly non-spoilery, I just want him to be familiar with the cast of characters, and some background info that will probably be appropriately communicated via the show, but one never knows about these things. Anyway, this is for you, Dad, but if anyone else is reading this, hey there.

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