SPOILER House of the Dragon - General Discussion

This is a place to discuss the GoT spinoff





My personal opinion on ep.1:
The show has promise, but the 1st ep was nothing but setup; a lot of character introductions and not much relatable drama. By comparison, GoT ep 1 manageds to weave in spades of drama and tension that just isn't here, I feel. That said, I do like the characters and I'm looking forward to seeing where we go from here. (I mean, we're obviously heading for a war of succession, but the hows and whys of it shall be interesting to follow).

For another consideration, it really shows that this series is more expensive than GoT right from the start. Everything is bigger and the fighting and action is very dynamic and feels like a movie more than a TV series.

Last consideration, there is no humor in HotD, thus far, and neither is it much charm. This is a tragedy right off the bat, and it is difficult to care about the characters when we haven't learned to love them yet. Again, by comparison, GoT starts off not as a study of characters and relations, but with a realm crumbling and everybody racing to save/seize it. With that show, we could relate with the story from the start.


All that said, I can't wait for HotD ep.2

 

Ep. 2 - The Rogue Prince

This episode, IMHO, continues for half its run to ponder and plod, exposing on things that sets up the actual conflicts of the show. The storytelling is very different, in this respect, from GoT, although the episode does kick off its plot halfway through, so perhaps with ep. 3 the show will finally start.

Nothing wrong with the show thus far, to be honest, but for an episode-and-a-half now it has felt more like some romantic costume drama than a fantasy political action-thriller-war-drama.

 

Ep. 3 - Second of his Name

I don’t like being critical, but this show is starting to annoy me.

House of the Dragon looks amazing, with strong performances and good atmosphere; whatever else one might say about it, the show is certainly well-made.

But nothing happens in this show! We’re 3 episodes in and the plot is at the exact same place it was in ep.1; the conflicts are the same and characters positions remain identical, with not an inch of movement in the story. (It is also quite strange that the war with the crab-feeder was at a stalemate for 3 years, and was only resolved once the king threatened to send aid).


By comparison, at this point in the story, GoT had:
EPISODE 1
--White Walkers had been spotted beyond the wall
--Seen Lord Arryn dead, kicking off the plot right from the start
--The Stark children had gotten their dire wolf pups (a clear omen)
--The King had arrived at Winterfell to name Ned his Hand of the King
--Catelyn had received a letter from her sister, Lysa, claiming the Lannisters killed Jon Arryn.
--Jaime had pushed Brandon off the tower to hide the twin’s incest
--Viserys Targaryen’s plot been established (=get army to retake the throne)
--Daenerys been married off to Khal Drogo
--Daenerys received her dragon eggs

EPISODE 2
--An assassin attacked Brandon, but was fought off by Catelyn & Summer
--Jon Snow went to the Wall
--Arya got her Needle
--Prince Joffrey threatened Arya’s buddy and was attacked by Nymeria
--Sansa’s wolf (Lady?) was slain in Nymeria’s stead

EPISODE 3
--Ned learned the kingdom has been mismanaged and was deeply in debt to the Lannisters
--Catelyn sets out after Ned and met Littlefinger, setting up a whole slew of plots within plots
--The Wall, guarding the realms of men, is just as mismanaged (=underfunded) as the kingdom and the Nights Watch can’t perform their sworn duty.
--Daenerys is pregnant with the Stallion Who Shall Mount the World




By the 3rd episode of House of the Dragon, we have:
--A quarrel between the King and his younger brother (and potential heir), same as in ep.1
--A quarrel between the King and his daughter (and named heir), same as in ep.1
--A new prince born (potential heir), established in ep.1
--A war with the crabfeeder lasting 3 years, off screen, which is resolved in a single scene. Daemon is right where he was, jealous of his brother, and nothing has changed; his claim hasn’t improved, his ability to force his claim has not improved, and in the end the crabfeeder conflict has served no purpose (it even happened, as I said, off screen between episodes). In other words, Daemon is the same as in ep.1
--Various factions vie for the inheritance of the Iron Throne, same as in ep.1
--The most interesting thing to have happened thus far is the king cutting himself on the Iron Throne and growing gradually sicker...
=All of this could’ve been a single episode.


By the Old Gods and the New, I long for HotD to begin.

 

Ep. 4 - King of the Narrow Sea

Finally, there is a slight progress to the plot -- not much, and the episode doesn't change or evolve anything (=we're still exactly where we were before, except for the Ser Otto Hightower now being demoted), but at least there's a promise now that something is going to happen eventually. This show feels so small in scope compared to GoT; where GoT was about dozens of people vying for the Iron Throne + scores of other peopel plotting towards different things, HotD is only, ONLY about Princess Rhaenyra and who she will eventually marry. EVERY plot and story beat (and there aren't many) goes toward that sole end. Actually, this show feels very much like a prequel single-character origins story spin-off show, except that it doesn't have an already established main show with that character taking part in to point farward to. HotD is far from a "worthy" sucessor to GoT.

Now, to the positive: Rhaenyra's story is quite strong in ep.4 and interesting. We all know where this is al heading (and no, I haven't read the book, but the bare-bones plot is quite obvious, right?), but at least Rhaenyra is fun to watch. What's more, I even liked Daemon in this one, which is an improvement. The show is well-acted and looks amazing, and the rowdy-streets-at-night stuff was very effective; they managed to get a lot of drama and life out of it. Another plus for young Ser Willem Blackwood (Alfie Todd), who was an absolutely bad-butt! I hope he comes back for a bigger scene or three later on

 

Ep. 5 - We Light the Way

More of the same. The show continues to snail on forward without developing any plots or arcs. Ser Criston kills Ser Joffrey for some incomprehensible reason, thereby infusing the story with a short moment of drama. The king has a nose bleed and is obviously dying, so Leanor & Rhaenyra's wedding ceremony is rushed. Oh, and Daemon continues to be a d***.

Again, we're halfway through the season and every situation, every plot, and every character is at the exact same place they were in Ep. 1. 'Tis all rather odd...

Perhaps this is where they chose to jump ahead 10 (?) years, to let Emma D'Arcy finally take on the role of Rhaenyra, meaning everything we've seen thus far is just a prelude, which could easily been handeled in a single establishing episode, or even a prologue scene or two in episode 1. We'll see...

 

(Just nitpicking, but you're getting the actors wrong. Emma D'Arcy plays the adult Rhaenyra, while Milly Alcock plays the young/current one)

Wow, really? I haven't been following the reviews for this show but I'm surprised to learn that I'm overly pessimistic here. This show's writing is REALLY not doing it for me, but if I'm in the majority on that and this show works well for most people, the more power to them Very cool. (It is just unusual that I'm the downer about these things, as I usually manage to stay pretty positive about stuff. That said, though, everything outwardly -- sets, visuals, camera work, costumes, acting -- all that jazz, is really good in the show!)

 

(First, I mistankenly wrote "but if I'm in the majority..."; that should be "minority". Oh well).

It amazes me that people pair HotD favorably to LotR:TRoP. There is weird stuff going on in the latter's writing, for sure (but which I assume will be clarified down the line), but LotR:TRoP is FAR better written at this point; at least, TRoP takes risks and tries for something, whereas HotD doesn't try for anything. 5 episodes in, and it's all just a very narrow setup that could've been a few sentences of prologue narration, especially considering that we're gonna change the main character's actor soon.

 

Ep. 6 – The Princess and the Queen

Opening scene: Excellent! A whole wagonload of show-don’t-tell, setting up everything and re-establishing the characters 10 years later. Marvelous writing!

Finally, HotD has begun. The last 5 episodes were all setup and prologue (and at least 3.5 episodes too much of it), but now we arrive. This episode reached the high of GoT drama, and promising a conflagration of resolutions that will birth even greater madness.

Episode 6 does not forgive the previous five, but at least the 5 hours of setup is arriving to something, which, I must admit, I was starting to doubt (dreading a scenario where the season kept creeping onwards only to set up some future drama and plot in the finale). Now I have confidence that this show could deliver.

 

Interesting... I don't think I noticed a single gross sceen this episode? Except, perhaps, for the suicide-by-dragon thing, which admittedly was quite gruesome. In any case, don't watch HoD if you don't like GoT.

 

I stand corrected.


(Also, I didn't personally find any of those 30 minutes gross)

 

Ep. 7 - Driftmark

Despite it being a rather slow burn -- (as in, people stood around and did nothing and/or reminisced over poorer past episodes for half the runtime) -- this episode turned out well. The drama is ramping up bigtime now, and although the show is still very, very small in scale compared to GoT -- (it remains "The Rhaenyra Show" with a promise of spiraling into "The Rhaenyra vs. Aemond Show") -- it is finally getting very exciting to watch.

I need to buy a better TV, though, as all the darkness scnees in... well EVERY show these days don't translate well to my screen, unfortunately.

Ep. 7 is another setup episode, and I wonder if the entire season is just setup, but that can work well down the line, of course. I still prefer LotR:RoP to HoD, but the latter shows promise of gaining on the former, I feel. Good stuff.

A comment on scale: HoD is what GoT would have been if GoT was only about Jaime, or only about Daenerys, or only about Sansa, or whatever. The current show is so much smaller than what GoT was -- where half-a-dozen factions vyed for the Iron Throne from the star, while Winter was simultaneously building in the north -- and HoD certainly lack any stakes beyond what various plots and arcs mean for individual characters (i.e. for Rhaenyra). Or to put it differently, HoD is basically Bridgerton in GoT garbs.