![]() How upset were Thrones fans after the botched ending to the original season? Upset enough to never tune in again?.Over the last five years, HBO has expressed concerns, both privately and publicly over how to proceed with their valuable IP. Why should anyone be shocked that a television series with $20 million episodes might actually be a success? Because production on House of the Dragon only began after the pilot to an initial spinoff was cast, filmed and immediately cancelled. And in what has come as a bit of a surprise, critics who’ve gotten an early look at the show (they’ve seen six of an eventual 10 episodes) are pleased. For the first time in almost three-and-a-half years, we’ll be back in Westeros. This Sunday is the premiere of HBO’s brand-new Thrones spinoff, a prequel called House of the Dragon. In the words of Tyrion: “A wise man once said the true history of the world is the history of great conversations in elegant rooms.” And there was always a simple, somehow-climactic pleasure in just watching two compelling characters talk. It took characters several episodes to walk the length of a road. In the first few seasons of Thrones, a negotiation for passage over a bridge was a critical plot-point. In those early days of streaming, this made HBO - with its blank checks and willingness to air 10 hours of television - the perfect partner. And those stakes were often enumerated in admirably slow burns. But what got them to stay was the stakes. Those things got people to start the show, there’s little doubt. Which…wasn’t the nudity, the frozen zombies, or the dragons. ![]() They’d rushed crucial sequences, tried to smoothen out their shortcomings with headline-grabbing CGI, bungled their answer to the show’s core question, and most crucially, had abandoned what made Thrones such a monocultural triumph. Weiss, everyone suddenly agreed, had completely gone off the rails in the seasons after their narrative eclipsed the blueprint written by George R.R. Suffice to say, the POV of a once-adoring audience eventually caught up with the gripes of the show’s most caustic critics. We’ll refrain from spilling details here, though the spoilers trickled into the mainstream years ago. That was partly fueled by necessity - like shaking off a loss in the deciding game of the World Series or NBA Finals, it was easier for most fans to just stop thinking about what had happened. Game of Thrones said goodbye over 1,200 days ago, on a Sunday evening in the spring of 2019, and it was somewhat astonishing how quickly the world moved on.
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