House of the Dragon S1 Review: Entertaining But Far Too Condensed!

I know you guys were probably wondering where my House of the Dragon review was, and all I can say is that I’m busy these days, and good things take time. So without further ado, I present my review of the first season of the Game of Thrones spin-off. For those of you who know me, then you know I’ve been a fan of the book series A Song of Ice and Fire for about a decade now. I watched S1 of Game of Thrones when it aired and liked it so much that I decided to read the book, and I’ve been a fan ever since. I always say Harry Potter was the book of my childhood, while ASOIAF is the book of my adulthood.

Related: Lord of the Rings – Rings of Power S1 Review: Mostly Enjoyable!

As a book reader, I was thoroughly disgusted with the ending D&D came up with for Game of Thrones. But, I selected to welcome House of the Dragon with open arms because this time around, George R. R. Martin is an executive producer and heavily involved. Not to mention, this story already has a written conclusion, so there’s less room to mess up. While we may thoroughly enjoy the attractions like magic, dragons, white walkers and political intrigue, Martin’s work has always been about the characters. They’re so layered and complicated and have come to define the series. We really do them a disservice when we attempt to view them in black and white or compare them with previously known characters.

The story of House of the Dragon is set about 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, based on the dynasty wars of the Targaryens, the conquerors of Westeros. This particular war saw the bitter blood feud between brother (Aegon) and sister (Rhaenyra) as they battled for control of the seven kingdoms. Both arguably have a solid claim. Their war rips the kingdom apart and starts the slow but sure descent of the Targaryen dynasty. It’s important to note that the storyline is taken from a companion novel of the series titled Fire and Blood.

Fire and Blood is written as a history book, compiled by a master based on third-hand accounts, years after the fact. So while certain events took place, it’s difficult to know true character motivations, and here is where HBO has room for creative license. In taking advantage of this, sometimes they create something greater than the book itself, and at other times it’s just not realistic, but we’ll get to that.

As this story is heavily character-driven, it stands to reason that I’ll be heavily dissecting the characters in this review. Rhaenyra, leader of “the Blacks” (played by Milly Alcock when young and Emma Darcy as an adult), is a spoilt child. She’s not the feminist icon a lot of viewers believe her to be. She’s selfish and self-serving. Whenever faced with the consequences of her actions, her father, Viserys (Paddy Considine) has to bail her out. She hides behind the men in her life far too much to be considered a feminist character. First her father and now Daemon.

Women would be killed for many of the things she does in this setting in House of the Dragon, yet she flaunts it for all of King’s Landing to see as if to say, I don’t care about your traditions, your laws, or decency for that matter. In fact, she’s made it clear she doesn’t care what the common people think at all. True rulers understand that their duty to the realm comes first and above all. If she whines, complains, and throws tantrums at the prospect of having to perform a small expected duty (marriage), why should anyone trust her to put the realm before her own desires in the future. She never has and never will. Rhaenyra wants the crown but she also wants to eat it too.

Alicent, the true leader of “the Greens” (played by Emily Carey when young and Olivia Cooke as an adult), on the flip side, has always tried to protect her children and uphold what she believed to be “right.” To some, that may read as upholding the patriarchy, but in my eyes, Alicent is a woman who understands her position and the way the world she lives in works. She knows she doesn’t have the same level of freedom Rhaenyra does, and while I do believe there is some resentment there, their feud is a lot bigger than this. They are essentially playing a zero-sum game. For Rhaenyra to rule uncontested, she needs to get rid of her brothers. It’s not a question of if but when and how.

We’ve seen how often child princes and princesses were killed in history for someone to take or maintain power. In House of the Dragon S1, Alicent finally understands this when she realizes Rhaenyra cannot be trusted and sees the situation for what it is and not what she hopes it to be. Those who trivialize their feud as Alicent being jealous that Rhaenyra gets to sleep around are ignorant and lack a fundamental understanding of medieval politics. It’s not about upholding the patriarchy. It’s about understanding the world you live in, and understanding that you’re not going to change centuries of tradition and culture in a single generation.

Sorry but you’re not. That’s like asking why many religious battles were fought. These are people ingrained beliefs and value systems that you’re asking them to abandon. Not an easy task and is made especially harder by Rhaenyra’s insistence on doing as she likes. Too many of the people watching and commenting on this show have a very immature view of it. This seems to be a running theme with many show watchers — using current societal standards to view this medieval-inspired story.

Now we move on to one of the most controversial characters in House of the Dragon, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith). Daemon is not a good person (people love to scream, “he’s a grey character!” Well, there’s been nothing good about him on the show except maybe his love for family, and even that is questionable). But then again, none of these people are. He’s a murderer and a child groomer who slithers back to court every time he comes up with some new scheme to get himself on the throne. He doesn’t love Rhaenyra, and he never has. To be sure, he does care about her in his way, but it’s more about what she can do for him. Now that her brothers are here, attaching himself to her is as close as he can ever get to the Iron Throne. I think he and Rhaenyra are well-suited. Two selfish, self-entitled people really.

Now to discuss his foil, Criston Cole (played by Fabien Frankel) may still be smarting from Rhaenyra’s treatment of him, but he’s not exactly wrong, she IS spoiled. As someone who grew up in the commons, I imagine being used and tossed aside by a person who’s never had to work for anything a day in their life would be infuriating at best. Not to say that he’s completely right either. I hate what the show has done with his character. It seems to be centered entirely on Rhaenyra when he was an important political player in his own right. Now he’s gone from being Rhaenyra’s lovestruck bodyguard to Alicent’s lovestruck bodyguard? Sorry but there’s just a lot more than could’ve been done with his character.

If I had to choose one outstanding actor/actress, it would be difficult. But I’d say Paddy Considine as Viserys Targaryen was particularly moving to me. His portrayal gives the character far more dimension than he ever had in Fire and Blood. A patriarch desperately trying to keep his collapsing family together. Peace was all he ever wanted. He definitely deserves an Emmy for his performance, so I’m pleased he was nominated. The scene where he begs his family to put aside their old grievances made me tear up honestly. Even GRRM agrees the show version was better than the book version.

I could talk about all the other characters in House of the Dragon I like or find interesting, for example, my favorite from the books, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) or the ever-complex Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), but this review would be longer than it is already. I will say though Aegon is the character I’m most excited to watch develop. I have my eye on Tom Glynn Carney to win an Emmy for his performance in the future because I can already see him being superb in portraying this melancholy King. His relationship with Aemond has always been the most interesting one to me, and I’m really hoping show writers don’t mess it up or fall short of it.

Fans are so caught up with choosing one side over another without realizing, they’re all terrible people who are far more interested in attaining power than actually ruling. (Seriously, someone called me a r-word apologist because I defended Alicent’s handling of Dyana. Meanwhile, they support a child groomer and wife killer… the call is coming from inside the house.)

The costuming in House of the Dragon was impeccable, as it always is with HBO shows, as were the set and numerous prop pieces. The prop pieces are probably my favorite part of the set, and had I the privilege of working on it, I would’ve probably stolen a few. I will say the lighting left a lot to be desired though, especially during Episode 7. I get the intention of what they were going for, but the director went overboard, and it lessened the otherwise exhilarating experience of watching Aemond claim his dragon.

The pacing was another thing I had an issue with. I get the lead-up to the actual outbreak of the war didn’t need to have every single thing portrayed, especially given the many time jumps. I just felt that there could’ve been more story woven in and a bit more character development so we could have a sense of these people before the eventual war. I also think the show writers were extremely biased against Team Black, given that they made huge changes to the story for no other reason than to keep the audience on Rhaenyra’s side.

While I did massively enjoy House of the Dragon as a fan, I wasn’t happy with every artistic changes made. While some added layers to the story, others just fell flat or made no sense. For example, while I think it was a stroke of genius to make Alicent and Rhaenyra the same age, it was beyond stupid to have that Rhaenys scene in Episode 9. Pure fan service. Not to mention the prophecy being the catalyst for Alicent’s motivations. It essentially says that had this event not occurred, there would be no conflict, which simply isn’t true.

Also Read: The Empress Review – Enjoyable for Period-Romance Fans!

Also, let’s not forget how they seemingly forgot about Alicent’s youngest son Daeron (currently in Oldtown), not even mentioning him. Yet they’ll have him pop up randomly in Season 2 to the confusion of show watchers. Would it have been so hard to film a two-minute scene where he’s at least mentioned? While I do look forward to House of the Dragon S2, I genuinely feel like there are areas the writing team can tighten up. I’m a bit nervous to see how they handle certain storylines going forward if I’m honest, but I’ll be watching. Hats off to the actors.

‘House of the Dragon S1’ Rating – 4/5

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