From my vague recollection of the novella, I thought Daemon was supposed to be a cool badass rugged pirate-y character you root for. I don't remember him being this unlikeable pretty boy.
But mostly I thought they'd start the war at the end of ep1 to kick it off. I reaaaaaaaaaally hope the entire S1 isn't setting up the war and the king doesn't die starting off the succession war in the final ep of the season or something. Would make S1 pretty dull.
Nothing interesting really happens in the novella until the king dies. Maybe he'll die at the end of ep2. Fingers crossed.
Shit, just refreshed a summary of the novella. They are totally going to drag the setup out the entire S1. Were not even in the right timeline and need a timeskip just to get to the INTRO of the story omg. Maybe I should just come back at S2 lol.
Actually after picking up the book again, I realized I never read Fire & Blood. Just the Dance of the Dragons novella. So this show is starting at the novella before that which is about 40-50 pages. Damn. Dance of the Dragons ain't starting until S2. That was what I was looking forward to seeing.
Edit: Yeah GRRM confirmed three days ago the war doesn't even start until S2. Can't say I'm too interested in this season. Will come back next year.
A lot of things are happening in Westeros as a continent, and there’s stuff going on all over, but what House of the Dragon mostly concerns us with is the issue of succession to the Iron Throne. Of course, the show starts in 101 AC at the Great Council, which the old King Harris has called to let the Lords of the realm advise him on who should succeed to the Iron throne after he dies.
Then the war itself breaks out in 129 AC, so we have basically a 28-year run just in the first season here. And you see the various characters introduced and the conflict begin to grow, the seeds of what will eventually be a war. But not right away. The seeds grow and feelings intensify and grievances are collected and all of that stuff, so, yeah, there’s a lot going on there.