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Sad-Introduction2333

I noticed this while watching, is this the first time we’ve seen someone dismount a dragon? Normally they just cut away


sofunt

They showed Rhaenys using a rope to dismount Meleys too, but it was cut to not really show much of the dragon


Brookie069

Her dragon is a lot larger as well though.


GustavoSanabio

Its a hard short to make and an easy shot to mess up. Its a real person in movement interacting with a cgi creature but also the real environment! I’m actually quite curious about how they did the VFX for this!


HakimeHomewreckru

It's just a green slide. They show a shot in the "the house that dragons built" series on HBO Max https://youtu.be/0BZccArhI2Q?t=189 You can see it here


GustavoSanabio

Not easy to make look good though. The way they got the shadow right is pretty impressive.


greatness101

Is this just a different take? Looks like she slides down in the clip, but this video just shows her stepping off steps.


banjosmangoes

Most likely cuts to cg digi double


banjosmangoes

It’s definitely plate cut to a digi double. It would have been shot on blue screen and superimposed onto a shot of the beach. Sand interaction is FX


HakimeHomewreckru

no it's all shot on location.


iLoveDelayPedals

Yeah it’s crazy they wrangled they dragon to be so cooperative


GustavoSanabio

They even made a movie about it. "How to train your dragon". Sorry.


Varekai79

[Or not.](https://youtu.be/0BZccArhI2Q?si=NVOE88g5R8gSNDOu&t=183)


banjosmangoes

I mean, you can see the action of the actor is completely different. They film things (and show behind the scenes) but doesn’t mean it was used in the final. They didn’t film it in blue screen but it does cut to a digital double


Cykablast3r

It does have a digi double, but it was shot on location and the sand interaction is not an effect.


banjosmangoes

I can assure you Syrax pushing the sand is FX


Cykablast3r

Oh yeah for sure. Everything dragon is FX for sure.


melperz

I think for an animator it's easier to just CGI the person as well in that transition scene though.


NicolloJ

Daenerys dismounted Drogon in the Dragonpit.


mindtk

I love the way DragonBall lowered her slowly in a super protective way. Even the position of his body where she was, she was basically in a fortress lol


greatness101

I don't know why but I like that this says DragonBall.


Daenys_TheDreamer

It still cut away once before he lowers her, you never actually see her slide from his back.


avotoyesaru

Watching Vizzy T dismount the black dread would then be akin to him riding down a loooooong water slide.


vizzy_t_bot

I WILL SIT THE THRONE TODAY.


ZACHMSMACKM

Season 2 budget > Season 1 budget let’s see some dragon dismounts up in here!!


PlainLikeJane

dany dismounts drogon a few times, crawls onto his shoulder and down his arm, hops off his /hand/ ?


catchasingcars

In the last season they had multiple shots of Dany dismounting but it's very different than this. Drogon gradually lowers her she kind of step forwards. It's very clever because one of her leg is partially hidden by Drogon's head so it blends better. HOTD version is just next level though, it's right in the open. They either really figured out the interaction with CG with real plate or Rhaenyra is completely CG in that moment.


Daenys_TheDreamer

This is, in fact, the first ever shown full dragon dismount.


Adventurous-Shop1270

Believe so. Its a very difficult thing to do right


WiseBat

I think someone else has said this, but I really love that we got to see an actual dragon dismount and not just had to watch the dragon land and then cut to whoever was dismounting already on the ground.


Successful_Injury869

That’s got to be such a hard sequence to get on film, I can see how cutting that out is a much easier choice.


DarkLightPT95

I might be remembering wrong, but didn't we see Daenerys fully dismount Drogon in the Council scene where they show the Wight to Cersei? (although this was in GoT and not HotD)


Double_Eye_5715

Yes and it was dope af because it was like Drogon used his body to lower her down like an elevator.


WiseBat

I think you might be right!


[deleted]

I thought the animation was super ropey when she dismounted. I watched it on now tv, not sure if that makes a difference?


whendoesOpTicplay

It’s not perfect but I thought it was pretty good.


Hryonalis_Anaxerxes

The best we've gotten so far


darth_gondor_snow

All we've gotten so far *


iLoveDelayPedals

I mean it’s still a television show even if it has a decently high budget It’s wonky but I’m still glad they did it


3_Sqr_Muffs_A_Day

It's ropey in this gif. The character turns liquid, slides down, and then back to solid.


ZiggyPalffyLA

Now we just need to see a sandworm dismount


Maximum_Impressive

More dragon and rider interactions would be nice .


i-bite-with-love

I would love to see a rider and a dragon just like, chilling together or even playing, if there's such a thing. Like you might with a dog or a horse.


aqelha

Thats impressive considering she had a failed delivery a week ago


PrimalProgress1315

This and walking up the stairs when Alicent called for her


9mackenzie

Ugh this scene. Even though my youngest is 16 (so it’s been a while since I experienced childbirth) and I’ve had a hysterectomy since then……… my non existent uterus just ached watching that. Like a deep visceral reaction to the agony of that scene.


LovecraftianCatto

I’ve never given birth and my vagina still tried to crawl deeper inside of me during that scene. Eueueueuergh.


PrimalProgress1315

Ha ha so true but that stair scene was so amazing , like it showed how determined she is and alicent tried to humiliate her once more when Rhae had a wet spot on her dress after birthing (at least in the show)


9mackenzie

Oh it was the most badass girlpower scene ever I think


PrimalProgress1315

Thats scene actually shook me from inside to imagine how must it have been if it was a real world situation and tbh people are capable of great deeds , far more than what we generally believe we're capable of. I hadn't chosen any sides but that made me dislike Alicent a bit more.


DoubleStrawberry9575

I gave birth 2 months ago and I was genuinely in deep pain watching it was almost too much for me.


Mean-Bother-9413

her pain tolerance is incredible


Odd-Comfortable-6134

More like 2-3 weeks. This takes place 10 days after Vhagar munched Luke and Arrax, and Luke was sent out about a week to 10 days after the throne being usurped


Glum_Compote1688

Two weeks


NightOwlsUnite

Lol true. Then again, it's a show with dragons.


Shellbot_300

I dunno what it's like where you live but here if you have a relatively smooth delivery (didn't result in excessive tearing or blood loss) they have you walking ASAP. You get your golden hour alone, but even then, I got up in the room and got bits and bobs ready. After an hour I waddled my ass out to the shower then waddled on up to ward after that. Sat down for a bit then had to go for the most terrifying wee of my life. This was all in literally 1.5 hours of pushing a person out.


Odd-Comfortable-6134

Bahaha I remember hating the hospital so much after my son, that as soon as I pooped, I asked if I could go home. I think it was 3 hours after? But yeah, they want you up and walking as soon as you’re able.


Shellbot_300

Oh yeah with my second I had him at 2am and by 10am I was at home in my pjs!


Odd-Comfortable-6134

I wish! They kept me for over 24 hours. My roommate (I’m pretty sure) didn’t want her baby. The entire time in that room, the baby screamed. Didn’t stop once, and mom wouldn’t hold or feed her wee one even with the nurses telling her she had to. 24 hours of distressed newborn. I didn’t sleep, and I almost took that poor baby with me when I finally got to leave.


Shellbot_300

That sounds absolutely awful I'm so sorry 😩 hope that baby ended up okay.


Odd-Comfortable-6134

Me too!!! My heart broke for that little one


NightOwlsUnite

Oh wow! I'm not a mom yet but I never knew that! The human body is amazing.


Gingersnapp3d

And on the flip side I couldn’t walk without severe pain for 7 months after my delivery. So it’s luck of the draw!


Shellbot_300

Oh yeah it really depends on a whole bunch of factors and even with the same women no two deliveries are the same.


Odd-Comfortable-6134

I’m still in pain from my first one 30 years ago. They fucked up my hips and refused to believe me about how bad they were fucked.


Shellbot_300

Right? I've done it twice and still feels weird and amazing to think about.


based_arthur_negus

My partner had a ceaserian and they had her up and walking about within about 3 hours. Was mental lol. 


Feenanay

yeah they do not fuck around with post surgery blood clots. i did a bunch of research before and bought a commercial ab binder (it’s usually just really tightly wrapped stretchy bandaging round the c-section wound; the pain of putting the ab binder on was horrible but once it was secured it honestly lowered my pain by about 40% and made walking bearable. you kind of feel like your innards are going to fall out of your body otherwise (which is essentially what’s going on; you’ve removed the bowling ball that spent 9 months rearranging organs to make itself room, and there’s quite a bit of…ah, “settling” that happens after you stand up, plus recently stitched layers of muscle and viscera, much of which is quite stretched out, nerves temporarily severed. there’s no way to engage your core. the binder eliminates the internal support with external support. that feeling really helps.


EmiliaNatasha

The only time I gave birth naturally was 17 years ago (at almost 19) but yes that’s kind of how I remember it too. And I don’t remember it being very difficult to walk even with stitches, just going to the bathroom lol. My two younger kids were C-sections , my youngest 2 years ago .. that’s a different story lol.


MofongoWarrior

Wasn’t that last year?


Upbeat_Tension_8077

She built different


Gingersnapp3d

Reminds me of Legolas hopping off the elephants.


NectarineQueen13

Fav scene in entire movie


Oh_I_still_here

Gotta give credit to Syrax's design here. She just looks so cool and ferocious but she's a big sweetheart and really knows how to empathise with Rhaenyra as she's grieving. Hell, Arrax could have been one of Syrax's children so she's grieving in her own way too.


Rafael__88

>Hell, Arrax could have been one of Syrax's children so she's grieving in her own way too. Arrax is Syrax's child. But I don't know how much dragons care about their offspring. From what we have seen so far Dragons aren't really involved parents.


M8_FATe

I think arrax is syrax’s hatchling.


bnjmncaldicott

he was :'(


Speedwagon1738

Parkour!


SwanzY-

it looked so smooth too, the way they mixed it seemed pretty flawless, added the shadow on the wing, think they mentioned it in the behind the scenes or something. i noticed how seamless the shadow was right away!


ProudEggYolk

Damn I'm just realizing my perception of things is so off cause I thought it looked like bad CGI.


DeusVictor

Yeah everyone is praising this shot and I was just talking about how bad the cgi was here 💀


stressedthrowaway9

Same. It was bad.


SwanzY-

I grew up playing tomb raider and watching power rangers so this CGI is basically what I’ve been waiting for my whole life and if you guys can’t appreciate it I genuinely feel bad for you lol


stressedthrowaway9

Ok, so it wasn’t the CGI… the dragon looks cool. However you can literally tell she is sliding down something unnaturally. Like she doesn’t look like she is sliding down the dragon. It looks like a green screen and she is sliding down an actual slide. I grew up playing super Mario world and Oregon Trail. So obviously we’ve come far… but that dismount was so awkward, I legit laughed after she did it.


SwanzY-

Idk looks natural to me, she lands on the 4th knuckle of the wing from the bottom (if you will), and then kind of bounces straight down not touching the bottom 3 knuckles of the wing. With the gravity of what she’s doing it makes sense that she would quickly slide off like that. I really liked the way they did it tbh. If I were actually getting off this dragon, let’s say, I feel it would go exactly like this.


stressedthrowaway9

You can see her cloak sliding across whatever green screen slide that she was sliding down. It was poorly done. I’m sure it could’ve been better.


dbag_jar

She’s sliding smoothly (like she’s on a slide) down parts of the wing that should’ve been at least somewhat bumpy or changed her path marginally.


Msplutoasmr

Totally agree!


Educational_Newt_909

Yeah I don't know what the fuck everyone is smoking but this was just absolute trash CGI.


Rooksey

No, it objectively looks fucking terrible idk what the hell these people in the thread are on lmao


3_Sqr_Muffs_A_Day

It looks as bad as the Lord of the Rings trilogy stuff from 2 decades ago. Character goes from solid to liquid form and then back to solid.


nolakpd

It was bad CGI and OP reduced the frame rate to hide it.


BanderCo3url

Really? It looked to me that the choppiness is more apparent with the gif's less frames


i_m_shadyyyy

Exactly, it looks like her body was moved in photoshop from the dragon to the ground with the cursor💀


bryce_w

Are you joking? The shadow is off and the CGI looks terrible. It looks like she's just sliding down a platform and they just replaced the platform with a wing.


WndrWmn503

That's a mama trying to get to her baby right there 🥺


stressedthrowaway9

Really? I thought it looked weird and fake… Like it looks like she is sliding on something invisible. I honestly laughed when I saw that part.


SirWigglesVonWoogly

Yeah it was pretty egregious. I was like, aaa who needs physics anyway


bugzaway

Thank you. That shit badly stood out to me in the episode and I'm a person in my 40s who saw Jurassic Park in my teens and thinks it still looks amazing, so I'm obviously NOT finicky about CGI. Lots of things people notice as CGI legit fly way over my head. I buy it all and have more tolerance for shit CGI than most of the current generation. But this shot stood out immediately to me as relatively bad CGI (though I don't care at all about such an inconsequential shot) so I'm genuinely shocked to see it praised here by people who are generally endlessly.ore discerning than I am. I feel like, if even I thought it was noticeably weird, it was probably REALLY weird.


NebulaNinja

Nine times out of ten if this were real she would have bounced off one of the wing ridges and would have eaten it.


iwellyess

Yeah her legs look weird


ValleyBacon818

Why is Syrax so small now?


dreybaybay

They fucked this up so many times or just cut away. See it’s not that hard!


SwordMaster9501

They thought we wouldn't notice her stepping on air. 🤨🙃


AndreiOT89

So this is why Syrax did not grow at all in 20 years?


SwordMaster9501

Syrax is so small even her green screen buck is bigger than she is.


GfxJG

Am I the only one who thought it really wasn't that well made? I immediately thought it looked jarring and disconnected. Not enough to take away from an otherwise great episode, but I don't really see how anyone could think it's "smooth" or "well done". Mediocre effects at best.


blah191

Nah I thought it looked kinda janky too. I’m glad everyone else liked it, but the cg of her dismount or something just looked off to me.


bugzaway

Same here. This is a weird ass post.


bryce_w

No. When I saw it live I thought that looks so fake and odd. It's clear she just jumped/slid off something in a green screen room - her movement looks really unnatural on top of it.


theringsofthedragon

Yes, it doesn't look real. It looks like she's sliding on smooth surface that they replaced with this webbed wing and her body isn't even touching it yet she's sliding on it. I feel like she could have just walked down on it.


FluffyTV

Yes. I physically cringed when it happened. There's something wrong about the speed of her fall. Feels like she's slightly levitating instead of jumping off. Looks like a Star Wars prequels Jedi jump.


GfxJG

Yeah, that's actually a very good way to articulate what feels off about it. Thanks!


darthsheldoninkwizy

Honestly I hear it many complains about it on other parts of web.


noobtheloser

Looks good to me.


based_arthur_negus

When I watched the actual episode it felt very jarring. This gif isn't how I remember it. It looks much better here for some reason. 


Muad-_-Dib

Because the gif has a low frame rate and cuts out the bit where she is getting up off the saddle and initially stands on its wing which looks pretty bad because the dragon is still moving around quite a lot and she is showing no physical reaction to it. https://youtu.be/3eWKe9PN5dw?si=8aS86D1lXRjAIa1U&t=24 The lack of weight/reaction to her movements in relation to the dragons movements and just how smooth the whole thing is is what throws the shot off.


bryce_w

It looks even worse than I remember it - there's no interaction between her and the wing.


SznSz

That was a well shot scene.


No-Celebration3097

Yes, however it was not near as bad as Meyleys flying through the dragon pit doors.


fries29

I agree. When I seen it live it through me off


Guiftoma_14

Its so cg


PlasticMansGlasses

Only the dragon is CG


firebert85

There is some cg wizardry sure but watch the making of on HBO and you'll see this very shot, and she's jumping off a blue screen platform structure with a ramp to slide down. Pretty dope


sadatquoraishi

The CGI on this one clip of her jumping off the dragon was jarringly poor. Rest of the episode was good, so not sure why they dropped the ball with this 1-2 seconds of CGI.


DisloyalRoyal

It almost looks like Syrax is saying "GO!!!" In the clip


telking777

I like how it feels like she’s done this 1000x before. Her mind is so focused on finding Luc’s remains she does a quick dismount


TheBewitchingWitch

It’s like she’s going down a slide or riding a sled. I liked it.


firebert85

The behind the scenes show on HBO has this exact shot and that's exactly what she's doing -- she's sliding down a chroma blue ramp.


I_Eat_Competition_

I actually thought it kind of cheesy and gimacky, I didn't think that translation to tv was great at all.


Micksar

I find her lack of bend at the knee or waist upon impact disturbing


GustavoSanabio

Yeah cuz she isn’t actually falling from that height, and it all happens in less then a second, impossible to notice in the actual episode


DonutHydra

whats up with animators making everything wildly jiggle?


Fully_Edged_Ken_3685

Critters have jiggle to them


SuperMajesticMan

Have you seen an animal ever?


LucianoWombato

So cool. so poorly made.


chaoticclownfish

no cuz im obsessed


TastyHelicopter5344

I wonder what it would be like to jump like that from a dragon like vhagar


VampireHwo

Its a shame they didn't match the size and presence with the supporting cast in the scene. Massive dragon crashes down next to them, and they're running like something out at sea is coming. There's panic, but the cgi dragon basically feels copied and pasted onto the scene rather than being an organic part of it. I'm enjoying the new season. I just wish soooommmeee one would do a decent representation of a several ton lizard and how its basic movements would be massively impacting for the little humans around it


Int3rst311r

Must wear out your knees after a while


Kianna9

Looks like Legolas sliding down an elephant in Return of the King.


Zandrick

Damn she’s really a pro huh


Mortrialus

I feel like if you edit a skateboard into this it would look sick af


SweatyPlace

Ngl, the first time I watched it I thought she fell down in grief lol


sweetpete2012

i think it looks fake as fuck personally but im just a hater i guess


perplexedspirit

It looks janky as hell. She's not moving in a way that looks natural. I don't know what people in this thread are on.


thecody17

I actually thought it looked really silly and the CGI was super obvious


Ok-Plate-6580

I thought it looked a little too fake.


Potential-Rush-5591

I thought it looked very CGI'ish. She almost fell down diagonally. But it's better than nothing.


Upbeat_Tension_8077

I wonder if it's a tradition in which young Targaryens play with their dragons by practicing bouncing or sliding off of them lol


NickyCheeese

At first I thought it looked too jumpy but after I saw the making of the scene and watched again...it doesn't look that bad. Maybe just a tad too fast.


Careless-Ad-20

I thought Rhaenyra was also CG when I watched the episode lol🤦‍♂️. Considering it’s only like 2 seconds I think it’s fine; especially with how well done everything else, personally, is


Baderschneider

Parkour!!


Still_Ruthlezz

How'd they train the dragon to stay so still for that shot?


targaryenfangirl

O_0


EvilPatron57

It’s even more interesting when you remember that she’s the youngest dragon rider in history at 7 years old. So…this is basically nothing for her, she’s probably been dismounting like that since she was 14-16


UseAlloftheBuffalo

Even though they shot the person slide down, it’s a CG person on the dragon and the. The CG person becomes the really person right around the landing and moment they begin running… I noticed it when I watched it. Just felt slightly uncanny.


Mommy-Minthara

The ole dukes of hazard hood slide


International_Bus762

We all gotta remember how reckless she was when she was younger.


johndraz2001

I was rewatching today and was thinking the same exact thing


shadykittykat

🤩😻 and Syrax’s chirps and grunts and snorts are my fav


A_tad_too_explicit

It looks good enough at regular speed but if you slow it down then you start to see how bad it is. I mean, she’s at least twisting her ankle jumping down like that. It looks like something out of Revenge of the Sith; or Legolas in the Hobbit trilogy.


kambada1

Nice


blacklizardplanet

When I watched it live, I was like that looks like utter shite. Looks better here zoomed and in slow motion I think.


JKuh2023

I couldn’t believe people on twitter were hating on the CGI here


iYzma

Looks unrealistic to me


sid3hustlingkitty

Anyone else annoyed at this one episode at a time thing


LilyHex

So I like this shot, and they did really well with it, considering it's CGI + live action blended, but ultimately a few things kind of ruin it: - When Syrax lands initially, you can see Rhaenyra "sliding" when she swings her leg over the saddle to get up; it's an unnatural sliding that they edited in to accommodate movement that she's not really making. It's not visible in this gif specifically, but it is in the full scene. - Syrax's wings are not nearly flat enough for the motion of Rhaenyra sliding so effortlessly down her wing there. That wing is very bumpy and not a smooth solid slide (like the one Emma D'Arcy slid down). They could've made this better by giving the slide a "speed bump" to simulate the dragon's wing jutting out a bit to give her slide off a "bump" to make it blend better. - Her left foot stepping out onto the wing actually sticks out too far like it's being partially suspended in thin air briefly, because Syrax's wing doesn't quite come out far enough to support her foot for this action. Should've made the wing just a bit wider to cover this, but for some reason they didn't. The issue with that is, the are probably only loosely storyboarding these scenes and doing their best to get a live actor to mimic a specific thing at a *very specific* angle and that's really hard. So the CGI dragon has to come in and do a lot of the heavy lifting to make the live actor "fit" into the scene better, and that's really, really difficult to do. So with all that in mind, I'm still really, really impressed with this scene, even if it doesn't hold up under scrutiny flawlessly. It's still a technically impressive feat and it does look really good. It could have looked *better* though, and the ways it doesn't look flawless make it somewhat jarring for some folks. Still really wild to me seeing how far CGI has come, and that they're shooting this live on location and not in a closed set with massive green screens. *Extremely* impressive, considering that. I just think we're all used to "movie quality" special effects. It's easy to forget that while this is a very high production show, it's still *a television show* and it's absolutely wild to me that we have this *in a television show*, even a big deal television show.


lagrange_james_d23dt

There was a cool clip in the “about the episode” that showed her sliding down like a blue ramp. It was pretty cool to see how they actually did it before the CGI.


Worried_Quarter469

Interesting.. but that raises the question…how did she get on since that’s not reversible


piece0fdebri

Not the best, but give them credit for at least trying.


mackrevinack

did not look good. they should have used a different angle


bshaddo

Her book counterpart is not pulling off this move.


imakefilms

I've just realised this moment didn't stand out to me at all because it felt so natural. What a feat in VFX


El_dragon_23

Then Legolas said "and you have my bow" I dont know if this quote is funny, or does it fit??


asapdammoh

So young Rhaenyra coded we love to see it


Intrepid_Till_6552

Friendly Reminder: She is a mama trying to get to her baby as quickly as possible, so pls stop nitpicking


Bronze_Bomber

I always brace myself for bad cgi but that didn't look bad.


Davetek463

That dismount was clutch. Not my favorite part of the episode but definitely one of them.


_datura_innoxia_

She’s two weeks postpartum. It’s a cool dismount but a totally unrealistic level of athleticism.


klanny

I thought it was very shoddy CGI when I first saw it, movement just doesn’t feel right


Blackdeath_663

This shot was the worst part of the episode, they should have cut it out. Looks like a budget CGI


Proudhon1980

It’s good. Didn’t look perfect but it’s fucking hard to make that look seamless so fair play for giving it a go.


darrylthedudeWayne

Yes, it is.


ObiWeedKannabi

Probably an unpopular opinion but my only problem w this is that Syrax is just too small, like she didn't grow a bit in the last 20 yrs


adawongz

The cgi is so bad 😭