House of the Dragon

CT Phipps

Carbon Dated and Proud
EPISODE ONE REVIEW:

https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2022/08/house-of-dragon-1x01-heir-of-dragon.html

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON is the prequel series to HBO's fantastic (for the first few seasons or so) GAME OF THRONES. It's a pretty distant prequel as well, taking place two hundred years before Daenerys Targaryen attempts her epic quest to assume the Iron Throne, which absolutely ended wonderfully and everyone lived happily thereafter. As you can see from my intro, there's some bitterness and ill-feeling leftover from Season Eight's finale which many fans share. Can House of the Dragon recapture the magic? Do we want it to?

Yes. With caveats, yes.

Yes, very much so.

The premise is King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) is having a really crappy two day as he loses both his wife and his heir, a boy, a day later. Viserys is a different kind of monarch in Westeros in that he is neither a religious fanatic, lunatic sadist, or utter incompetent. He's a bit conflict adverse but that's hardly the worst quality to have in a setting where conflict is resolved with mass murder. The Targaryens have been rulers in Westeros for a century and they're at the height of their power due to having a dozen or so dragons.

The issue is succession with Viserys having no sons, one daughter, one brother, and a cousin who was already passed over to make him king. Westeros would very much like to have a man as their king, so that would indicate Daemon (Matt Smith) should be the king but he has the problem of being a relentlessly debonair rogue that everyone is afraid will have them killed when he ascends. Probably because he would. To be fair, they're all a bunch of scheming bastards and he has a Han Solo meets meets the Tudors ruthlessness.

Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) wants to skewer Daemon's chances by unexpectedly supporting Viserys' daughter, Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), as the heir instead. This will end up shooting him in the foot as his daughter, Lady Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey), already is in position to comfort the grieving Viserys that is old enough to be her father verging on grandfather. Really, Otto all but tries to pimp her out in his grief over his widowdom and she's suitably disgusted. It's also doubly awkward because Rhaenyra and Alicent are besties, bonding over being the smartest people in the Red Keep but kept from power by their sex. Oh and the fact they're teenagers.

A lot of this is set up for later episodes in the series and if you aren't interested in a show about who will sit on the Iron Throne, backstab one another, betray their loves, or curiously ignore all the incest going on then why are you watching Game of Thrones? I mean, House of the Dragon? The big thing this series has both for and against it is that it is a return to the pageantry, beauty, crassness crossed with high society, violence, and sex of GOT. It feels a trifle more aware of its female audience this time with Matt Smith there to be balance out the fanservice but it's very much a show that feels like, "Can we just pretend we never had that messy breakup?" The answer would be no except...dragons.

Damn you, HBO, but you got me with the dragons. It's like that moment in Peter S. Beagal's The Last Unicorn where Christopher Lee talks about seeing unicorns (only with dragons) for the first time: "Each time I see the dragons, my dragons, it is like that morning in the woods and I am truly young, in spite of myself." I mean, young again in this case refers to 2019 but that feels like a very long time ago with the Pandemic and other things that make me long for Westeros. Watching George R.R. Martin's work on screen again is like going on a date with your ex after you've both grown and remembering the good times while forgetting the bad. But it's the dragons that got me here and dragons that will keep me to stay.

I could nitpick about details: Rhaenyra is being set up as the plucky young heroine who should be queen because why shouldn't a girl be queen without ever questioning the fact that a hereditary despotism's problems are not what sex the ruler is. Matt Smith is doing triple duty as the comic relief, romantic lead, and a handsome rogue with some truly dark qualities. Some Tyrion-esque humor would have been appreciated but the season is young.

There's some very uncomfortable parts in this episode with the caesarion scene being genuinely traumatizing. The contrast between it and the violence of the tournament is powerful stuff, though, and underscores that this is a patriarchal society that is no woman's land. It may be a little too heavy on this theme but the central conflict being between Alicent and Rhaenyra is something that I think will provide plenty of fodder for future episodes.

In conclusion, you've probably made up your mind on whether or not to see House of the Dragon. However, I give this a stamp of approval. It could end up disappointing me and we break up the same way we did before for the same reasons. However, so far, things are very good and I am way more excited for this than any program this year.
 
I am more excited for this mostly due to the cast.

 
My biggest issue with GoT is inability to convey the portrayal of non-players aka Smallfolks. High Sparrow is much more sympathetic in the book than what the show presented. Religious nutso aside, he represent the people's power over corrupt Faith of The Seven priesthood and nobilities which only brought chaos in the land.

In case you wonder, I believe in the existence of Maester conspiracy over nobilities of any kind, wether implied power or backed with actual magic must be restricted. Oligarchial it might be, but at least there exist smooth social mobility that also directly benefitted the common people rather than one used to wage war (knighthood).



Shad also release his own review btw.


 
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People that enjoy fantasy want to escape the real world. Therefore watching this kind of trash is the pastime of neurotics.
 
Not sure I'm going to watch this, got a bad taste in my mouth after Game of Thrones' trashfire ending.

Also the idea of watching a 2edgy4me softcore porn fantasy show is less appealing in your 20s than it is in your teens.
 
Well, 10,000,000 viewers watched HOUSE OF THE DRAGON and it is by far the most popular premiere HBO ever had.

I guess it won't be needing much more promotion from fans.
 
Yeah "fans" I am sure. I think Martin is a massive jackoff (stop writing ancillary material nobody wants) that ruined his only claim to fame aside from Beauty and the Beast Sewer Edition.
 
Well, 10,000,000 viewers watched HOUSE OF THE DRAGON and it is by far the most popular premiere HBO ever had.

I guess it won't be needing much more promotion from fans.
GoT was one of the most popular shows to begin with so that is hardly a surprise. It's difficult to say how much dick-riding on the old show the new show is doing. To be completely fair, what I've seen from trailers so far? Gives me a lot of mixed feelings. Which has somewhat todo with the choice of actors. I reserve a finall opinion once I watched the show. But as someone else here said already. Kinda still burned from the previous show. And I also have doubts that they can actually create the same momentum like GoT. I also found the period they chose here a little bit odd. But who knows. It might work out well in the end. The thing is, when you look at it GoT really started rather slow and then picked up the pace over time when people realised, how hey this is not you "typical" fantasy/schlock show. And now? Well now you have Dwagons! Lots and lots of Dwagons! And we will see them in a civil war!
 
They went cheap on this one. You can tell because the cast fucking sucks minus one or two people. It will be canceled.

What is your opinion on that Phipps? Doesn't it look like they went cheap on the cast compared to the main show?
 
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Yeah "fans" I am sure. I think Martin is a massive jackoff (stop writing ancillary material nobody wants) that ruined his only claim to fame aside from Beauty and the Beast Sewer Edition.

It's not so much he can't hear us on the way to the bank so much as he can't hear us in his Scrooge McDuck money bin.

They went cheap on this one. You can tell because the cast fucking sucks minus one or two people. It will be canceled.

What is your opinion on that Phipps? Doesn't it look like they went cheap on the cast compared to the main show?

I mean, you could literally read the review of the episode I wrote at the top of the thread. Generally, though, I have no problems with the production values (the fact they had all of the props from the previous show probably helped) and the CGI is lovely. Really, they seem to have gotten a bunch of really talented character actors for the story.

My biggest complaint is the fact they are trying to go through Fire and Blood too quickly and should have spent more time on the characters than plot. Mysaria, Daemon's mistress, only has a nude scene and a few lines when they could have had at least a conversation or two despite her importance in the story.
 
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I totally get it but if I had some kinda legacy like he did I would be working on it. I think he will off load it after he dies like Wheel of Time and Deathlands.

It's not so much he can't hear us on the way to the bank so much as he can't hear us in his Scrooge McDuck money bin.



I mean, you could literally read the review of the episode I wrote at the top of the thread. Generally, though, I have no problems with the production values (the fact they had all of the props from the previous show probably helped) and the CGI is lovely. Really, they seem to have gotten a bunch of really talented character actors for the story.

My biggest complaint is the fact they are trying to go through Fire and Blood too quickly and should have spent more time on the characters than plot.


I did. I did not see much talk about the cast being shit. I actually searched to make sure I did not miss it but you did not even mention the word cast. Maybe you said actor....nope. I know I did not directly respond to your op post but I did read it. I mostly get the impression the show is not total shit like Wheel of Time and Rings of Power appears to be but that is entirely due to the one or two actors that will draw people to even watching this while the og show had more to work with.

Then again nobody really cared about Lena Headey until GoT so maybe a star will rise from this new show?

Spend time on characters!? WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS IS BETTER CALL SAUL? ;)

Also why does the dragon cgi looks so bad? Why does cgi in general look so fucking bad with big studios? Because they have no faith or what? I am to the point where Dragonheart almost looks better but maybe Connery doing the voice adds a lot.
 
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Right.

Well generally I think everyone did an okay job with the standouts being Paddy Considine who plays a nuanced and likable guy who is stuck with a job he is manifestly unqualified for but is managing to not fuck it up nearly as much as most kings by simply avoiding getting into any wars or major conflicts. However, the standout performance of the episode is definitely the throne room scene where he completely loses his shit. The thing is, we KNOW that he's being manipulated into all of this by his creepy advisor but it's still nice to see him stand up for himself.

Daemon Targaryen as Matt Smith feels very much like someone created a character deliberately to be a likable bad boy who fills the Jaime Lannister and Tyrion role. The thing is that there's a lot of ways they can play it as either a villain or antihero and Matt Smith manages to thread the needle of him having done some reprehensible shit on screen but to make him enough of a guy who loves his family that you sympathize with him. Oddly, I don't have a problem with the dragons (the fact they have breathing movements is a major plus for me) but I do think his armor looked fucking ridiculous.

Everyone else is...fine.

The teenage girls seem likeable enough but there's not enough contrast between them versus, say, Arya and Sansa. Both of the are highborn ladies even if one is more bookish and the other is a dragonriding badass in the making. Rhys Ifans' Ser Otto Hightower is probably the best actor after Paddy and Matt Smith but he is pretty understated so far with only the fact he's willing to pimp his own daughter giving a sense of just how skeevy he really is.

I'm a little disappointed that Sonoya Mizuno's Mysaria doesn't get more than a couple of scenes where she's mostly just saying generic dialogue (which is not normally how I'd catalog soliciting a threesome). I'd like to know more about her and Daemon's relationship. She seems to be the one who is genuinely happy Daemon's nephew died at the party, which he is having none of, but not much else. Shae got a massive upgrade in character in the show and I hope the same would be here.

Like I said there's some good acting here but there's not enough character beats so far to really be quite there up with GOT's pilot. You fell in love with virtually everyone in the first episode of GOT from Tyrion to Arya to even Catelyn. So that's a bit disappointing but it's still much-much-much better than the latter seasons.
 
HBO renewed the show for a second season

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/house-of-the-dragon-season-2-1235199922/

The move came relatively quickly following the series premiere of Dragon on Sunday, which delivered 10 million viewers overnight — an HBO record for a series opener and roughly on par with the premiere of Game of Thrones season six. Now HBO reports that in the days since, the premiere viewership has climbed to 20 million viewers.
 
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