Welcome back, for week 2 of House of the Dragon. If you made it past the tourney and the C(itadel)-section, you’ll do just fine. Settle in and enjoy the show!
Spoiler Note: This recap and the comments section may contain mild spoilers from George R.R. Martin’s novels and Westeros histories, whether or not that material has appeared on the show yet. If you have not read the books and wish to remain completely Unsullied, we encourage you to check out our non-book-reader recap by Oz of Thrones!
Wait that’s not quite right, is it? Needs more blood! Just oceans of the stuff. That’s what the opening credits were always missing.
All kidding aside, it’s good to hear the familiar strains of Ramin Djawadi’s ultra famous opening theme for Game of Thrones, and to see a similar visual composition in play for HOTD’s opening credits, tweaked for House Targaryen. But…I can live without seeing rivers of blood every week. I understand the reference and symbolism, but it’s still gross and I suspect I’ll be skipping the opening credits a lot more than I did with GoT. Your mileage may vary on the ick factor.
Diving into the episode- we say so long to Ser Ryam (we hardly knew ya), and Harrold Westerling gets a promotion in the Kingsguard. The Kingsguard will need to replace Ser Ryam ASAP since kings die like flies in Westeros.
Corlys Velaryon is mad as hell at the Small Council meeting; Craghas Crabfeeder has been seriously on his shit and it’s hitting his business hard. We also get a not so subtle hint that half a year has passed since the last episode. The adults are talking and Rhaenyra the cupbearer gets shushed when she tries to contribute.
Sent off to shop for a new Kingsguard, she opts for a tested warrior over the political choices foisted upon her by Otto Hightower. If the more experienced knight happens to also be scorchingly hot, well Rhaenyra can’t help that. It’s not her fault that Ser Criston Cole is as handsome as he is good with his sword. But it is a bonus.
Meanhile, Viserys is playing with his dragon minifigs and Dragonstone Dreamhouse. Alicent has been spending time with him regularly, having their little chats, and sir? Please step away from that young girl and have a seat. He asks her not to tell Rhaenyra about their developing whatever-this-is because he knows. Stop trying to fuck your daughter’s girlfriend, Viserys. You know this is not correct.
Rhaenyra and Alicent meet for a tender reassuring chat and kneel around an astounding amount of candles. Between the candlelight, girltalk, handtouching, and sapphic longing? Frankly, with the scene we’re getting here, it feels like a TV show that would probably get canceled after one season on Netflix. Except knowing how these two wind up, it feels like queerbaiting. Unless they actually have it go somewhere, despite the fate written for these two in the books and showed to us so far in the trailers. Martin, Sapochnik and Condal might not completely alter a story but they could add some details and moments in.
The Velaryons approach King Viserys with a proposal- a wedding one, and now he has two underage women to contend with, as they suggest the king marry their young daughter Laena. It would strengthen their alliance and Viserys’ flagging reputation. (Plus they’re related through Rhaenys so maybe they thought he’d be into that? I dunno.)
Rhaenyra and Viserys dine together, painfully, awkward. (I’m wondering, where are the servants? They’re still royal. Anyway.) After the Small Council meeting earlier, they don’t know how to talk to one another.
In other news, the Iron Throne is literally killing Viserys. (Take a hint, V.) The cut received from his throne has festered and he’s close to losing a finger. So here comes ye old Maggot Cure! Otto takes this opportunity to bend the king’s ear about marital alliances. They think the Velaryon proposal could be good but Otto clearly has other plans in the works.
Viserys meets with the LITERAL CHILD the Velaryons have proposed he marry. She is small and trying to be very good, and it’s tragic. Viserys is not down with this, and that is reassuring.
Rhaenyra and Rhaenys cross paths at the keep, and it might be educational for the princess. Rhaenys’ cynicism is on full display, especially after helping her husband nudge her daughter at the much older king. She doesn’t have any faith in the men of their world, who will never let a woman rule. But Rhaenyra declares there will be “a new order.” Ooof, that sounds familiar.
Viserys and Alicent discuss the problematic proposal, and she brings him one of his figurines for his playset, repaired. Alicent fixed his dragon- it’s symbolic you see. Subtle. He’s deeply touched by the gesture. But Otto cockblocks his own daughter because news! Dragon news!
After parking his butt in Dragonstone for six months, Daemon Targaryen makes a move by pranking his big brother. The rogue prince snatches a dragon’s egg (the one meant for Baby Baelon no less) and announces his intention to marry and have a baby with his companion Mysaria. The Small Council sees it for the obvious provocation it is and sends Otto. He’s expendable, and kind of annoying.
Daemon enter slinging the egg around like a football, and we finally get some action in this rather slow-moving episode. But I don’t know if talking shit on a narrow staircase is It, Otto, and also, people forgot that Daemon has a dragon. So there’s that. The scene is tense, on the edge of fighting, when Rhaenyra busts in with that “show of force” she wanted, riding Syrax.
Defanged by his niece’s arrival, Daemon admits his bluff, and gives the egg back. Mysaria retreats. Perhaps surprisingly she is unafraid to call out the prince on his lies, and the danger he put her in, in this situation.
Viserys consults with Small Council member Lyonel Strong about the marriage business. Strong councils him to marry Laena and thereby keep Corlys secured as his ally. Gross but strategically sound.
After Rhaenyra’s stunt at Dragonstone, the king is mad as hell when she comes home. But Rhaenyra has matured quite a bit in a short amount of time. She counters with her accepting of his need to get married, because duty to the realm is the most important thing. They’re at peace. (Temporarily. It’s hard raising a teenager.)
After much dithering, Viserys has made his decision and makes the announcement he will be marrying the lady Alicent Hightower. Corlys is naturally angry, Otto is smugly satisfied and Rhaenyra is floored and teary. Most notably, Alicent does not look like a girl who just got proposed to by a king she cares about. She looks pretty miserable, actually. But the deed is done, the proposal made.
Somewhere else, Corlys explains himself: the Velaryons are an ancient house but he had to make his own fortunes. It’s a neat little villain monologue to reveal that of course Viserys has driven him directly to Daemon- because what else would he do? He needs help in stopping Craghas Crabfeeder and Viserys isn’t helping. Now the king has spurned his daughter. Corlys has made a move, and the king has made a powerful enemy.
Stray Thoughts
Opening Credits Returns! I’m actually surprised they reused original main title theme. Obviously it’s hugely associated with GoT, so they probably wanted to work with that to make the emotional connection but I would’ve thought they’d want to establish their own identity more. So I was expecting new music by Djawadi. Dare I say, I was slightly disappointed by hearing the same music! The animations are beautiful and so creative, but like I say in the recap…I don’t really want to look at rivers of blood a lot. I think these opening credits are going to be a little more divisive than the original.
Kingsguard’s Wear Daily: I don’t remember the Kingsguard helmets looking like Magneto.
Rhyming Sorceresses: Mysaria framed with the familiar Dragonstone carvings behind her gave me strong Melisandre flashbacks, and it felt a little deliberate. (In addition to positions, their back stories are also similar.) This Mysaria is a little different from the one sketched out in Fire & Blood; once again we have HOTD bringing up a reproductive choice (Mysaria eliminating her ability to have children). Mysaria in the book was actually pregnant with Daemon’s child when he stole the egg. It will be interesting to see if women’s autonomy over their bodies in this way continues to be a throughline throughout the first season. Certainly women’s power in general (and lack thereof) is a major storyline point.
Are there sides? Fan gets caught up in good/bad debates and Great House stanning, but ultimately can characters in this world ever be boiled down to a simple essence that way? I jokingly refer to Corlys’ final comments as a “villain monologue” but I don’t think of him as a villain. For him this is the reasonable strategic maneuver, even though it will put him at considerable risk. He would consider Viserys a villain (and a fool and a bad king) for choosing a bride with no Valyrian blood who did nothing to shore up alliances or save men. And we as viewers were side-eyeing the lot of them for the marriage business tonight. Whatever the answer is, I think it’s a good sign that House of the Dragon can spawn interesting questions only two episodes in.
Slower but steadier – Tonight’s episode was..maybe not a tortoise, but not a hare either. In comparison to last week’s traumatizing, nonstop action and dizzying jumps from one big scene to another, this episode took more time to build and gave us more time to breathe. I appreciate that we’re getting to know the Small Council members, and the way all the characters inhabit this world.
Steve Toussaint – He’s absolutely a star. I don’t look anywhere but at him when he’s in the room. The folks in charge knew what they were doing when they cast him. I can’t wait to see Corlys get up to shit next week.
Targaryen Family Matters – This episode did tremendous work in developing believable family dynamics between Viserys and Rhaenyra. Which is weird when we’re talking about dragons, dragonriding, kingdoms, remarriage potentially with way-too-young people, etc. But the uncomfortable dinner and Daemon’s conflicted feelings about his brother grounded the wild world of Westeros in something familiar- complicated family shit, muddied with hurt feelings.
Valar Morghulis
Ser Ryam Redwyne, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard (Played by Garry Cooper)
I’m starting to like pretty much everyone, which is concerning. 🤣 Corlys may be a grumpypants, and much like with his Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith has not been an immediate like for me, but I know they’ll grow on me like greyscale eventually.
Do I ever love Paddy Considine though as Viserys. The characters ages and timelines are messing with my head a bit compared to their book counterparts.
I thought this episode was a big improvement over last week. They gave especially Daemon a lot more nuance. Viserys’s failings meanwhile are becoming much more obvious to the viewer. Otto on the other hand is being portrayed a little too onesided for my liking. The villainous smirk was so cliche.
I agree on your comment about the opening credits. In my eyes they were simply too long. Game of Thrones used its intro to convey information, watching blood flow became dull after half a minute.
The only other critique I had was of Daemon’s dragon (the name eludes me). When it roared, well, if it was meant to be intimidating it didn’t do it for me, I found it rather pathetic. The sound design this season (minus the music) has been rather lacking so far.
I’m may be the only one who wants to talk about this right now, but Lyonel Strong is probably one of the most faithfully adapted characters in GoT/HotD. Like, ever. Everything from his looks to his demeanor feels like reading a Wiki article about him.
Overall I would say I still like the show so far but found the episode a bit weak. I was also quite disappointed by the opening credits – to me they did not capture any particular idea or theme all that clearly and I could not quite figure out what all that blood was flowing over, where were we? What were those disks that kept getting flooded? Not very clear, so disappointing after the amazing GOT credits.
Thanks for the recap! Very useful because I notice I miss a lot.
Question: would you also want to do a recap about the intro? It goes so fast that I don’t know what I’m seeing besides the blood. But apparently it’s about the Targaryen history?
I found this episode kind of slow, but at the same time, I understand the necessity of everything we saw, and it was all well-written (as… uncomfortable as some of it was).
I liked getting to know Corlys better – He didn’t get much to do in the premiere, but now he’s shot up in my list, and I’m interested to see his story play out. Steve Toussaint is awesome.
I will agree on the opening credits (aside from the blood – that didn’t bother me) – I would have liked a new theme song, and unlike the original opening, it wasn’t very clear what they were trying to get across.
Joy C,
This!
I really liked it. It seemed a bit dull at first until I got used to the nuances and thought the level of tension developing and complexities of the situation unfolding was very well done. I’m really looking forward to next week’s episode now–whereas I was still finding my feet a bit prior to this one.
I thought the opening titles worked in so much as they imply this is going to be a much darker tone than the original. I would have preferred a freshly tweaked version of the theme tune though.
No one says Hodor anymore??
I’m watching alongside a graphic of the family tree 🤣 Have to get my head around all the names. Loved hearing the opening music but hated the blood. Glad we didn’t have to wait too long to know what we were seeing – Valyria before the doom. Agree it’s too long. We will be bored with it by next episode though.
Where is the old Twitter crew?
Ugh, a whole episode of good writing & acting? Lame. No one likes good writing & good acting. Just pewpew raw raw argh!!!! Come on, HOTD! Stop making an effort! If there are more than 3 lines of dialogue in the entire episode you’re going to lose the audience! Fewer words, more dragons! Just dragons the whole episode! Hell, why not bring 10,000 dragons and every episode just have them fight. What’s with all this great dialogue & performance garbage?! UGH! This is 2022 when Maverick was the top movie for doing the BARE MINIMUM.
Please, HOTD showrunners, make season 2 great again by having only dragons & no words & forget plot. Thank you.
I enjoyed this one. I loved the opening credits too. It’s the Targ family tree! Just with blood. Because Fire and Blood, I guess? Anyway, about Mysaria…the book says she’s pregnant, but it’s written by a maester who wasn’t there, so I wouldn’t say that’s definitive of anything. Daemon said she was and people believed him. I love Daemon, but I liked Mysaria calling him out. He was reckless with her life and I would be pissed too. I thought it was interesting that she’s taken steps to not have children. It contrasts with Alicent and Rhaenyra (and Aemma) who are only good for their wombs apparently.
?
Personally, I think the show is pretty good, but I also think there’s a limit on how much I’m going to like it. What I loved about GoT was how many flavors it had. HotD is basically one flavor, so it really depends on how much I can tolerate that one flavor.
There’s not many characters that I’ve gravitated to yet. I do like Rhaenyra, but isn’t the actress getting replaced with the older one soon? I hope I will like the older version as much as the younger.
The scene with Mysaria felt a bit too forced. I didn’t entirely understand her complaints there.
I think Viserys is kind of like the Ned Stark of HotD. The well-meaning, but bad decision maker who will probably be gone by the end of the first season. Maybe a little dash of Ron Stark mixed in there for the selfish/poor marriage decision.
I would really like to see the world open up a bit more moving forward. It looks like we’ll get a little something different next week with the crab people or whatever, so looking forward to that.
Even GoT didn’t show much outside of Winterfell until episode 3, so I understand why we haven’t seen much outside of KL here so far.
P.S. What’s the point in having dragons if you don’t use them? Anyone with a dragon could’ve done a quick ride-by-grilling to stop the crab people. It could’ve taken like 30 seconds. Use your dragons people.
I’m a little surprised and confused by how few comments there have been this week, compared to last…
Never thought I’d be back commenting here again, after… well, let’s not bring that up again…
I must say I really liked this one. I liked the intro. I’m not bothered by bloodstreams. I liked the storytelling. I’m growing fond of some characters. I enjoy hating others. The Dragonstone part really got me – nice teasing, great pictures, entry: the Dragonprincess – smoooooth
The dynamic between Rhaenyra and Daemon is appealing, them shooting looks at each other, talking Valyrian (shutting everybody else out). More of this is really something I’m looking forward to. Yes, I can say I think I will stick to that.
“I don’t really want to look at rivers of blood a lot.”
I didn’t like that they used the same intro as GoT either, but really? People getting eaten alive by crabs didn’t warrant a complaint, but the river of blood was too much? It’s disingenuous to complain about blood when you watch a show like this. The show is about a family whose motto is “Fire and Blood”, LOL.
Same.
I have listened to a lot of reviewers state this episode was slow and boring, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It really did set the scene for the intrigue and civil war to come.
I was particularly moved by the scene where Viserys announces his marriage to Alicent. The look on Rhaenyra’s face when she heard that her best friend, who is about her age, was marrying her father, was heartbreaking. No only must she feel betrayed, but she must also realize that any male children Alicent has will push her down in the line of succession, and it did seem as if Rhaenrya was enjoying stepping into the role of Queen-in-waiting. Viserys really should have told her before breaking it to everyone during a small council meeting.
I liked that they kept the GoT theme song. It’s so recognizable and is still my ringtone. However, I’m not a big fan of the opening credit sequence as it was difficult to see what each sigil , or whatever those things were, depicted. Watching a river of blood was a bit gross, but I get it, this is based on Fire and Blood, but it seemed a little amateurish and not as sleek as the GoT opening credits.
The only real criticism of the series I have is that it lacks any humor. Everyone is always so serious. One of the things that was so brilliant about GoT was its humor. Bron, Tyrion, Varys, all brought some much needed levity. I think HoTD is in dire need of some as well.
Mr Derp,
There weren’t many graphic close-ups of people getting eaten by the crabs. At the very least, from my view watching on a TV (versus a laptop or phone), it wasn’t graphic. Unpleasant in concept, sure, seeing crabs crawling over people. Whereas like two minutes of nonstop blood flowing everywhere as the main focus of the credits is a bit much. And frankly, people have different squicks. So, no it is not disingenuous. It is a difference of opinions. You’re bothered by crabs- I’m a New Englander, and crabs don’t bother me much. I wasn’t as freaked out by the Crabfeeder as some.
Sue the Fury,
I wasn’t bothered by the crabs at all. I brought it up because I just thought it was weird that you hated the river of blood but were ok with people getting eaten alive. The show is about fire and blood afterall. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
Mr Derp,
No, the show is about a family who has dragons. “Fire and Blood” is their colorful house motto. Yes, people bleed sometimes. It doesn’t mean we want to watch rivers of blood all the time lol. If we did, we’d be watching American Horror Story, not this.
Ok, but there weren’t rivers of blood “all the time”. It was just in the opening credits, which lasts for like a minute or two. and I think you mean “I’, not “we”. I had no issues with the blood itself. I just thought it was lazy to use the GoT theme song again.
Right, it’s their motto for a reason. Prepare for a lot more blood moving forward.
Mr Derp,
No, “all the time” meaning it will be in the credits every week. You’re very literal, dude.
Sue the Fury,
I mean, there’s a pretty wide gulf between “all the time” vs. “in the credits every week”.
I don’t know why, but I always love a good Small Council meeting. Whether it’s this show or GOT, I always find myself leaning forward intently during those scenes. XD
I’m surprised but glad they brought back same theme music. Did anyone watch Phantom Menace and complain that they re-used Star Wars main theme? A classic will never get old.
I will say the visual was confusing. GOT’s map helped set the stage for each episode, I never skipped it because I wanted to see which cities we’d go to. The blood flowing through Viserys’ miniature Valyria does not seem to have any connection to the story.
Are those sigils on the discs? What do they represent?
I am hopeful that Valyria and the Doom are explained in more detail and is important to the story. Viserys’ model and the credit sequence may point to that history being an integral part of the season. Just as Robert’s rebellion and the history of Children of the Forest shaped GOT, the Doom and some lingering unfinished business might be important and fun.
Enjoyed the episode. I like the fact that things are taking their time and not happening at an unrealistic pace ( like “Beyond the Wall” / Gendry). Soaking it all in as they add layers is fine by me.
Imo the rivers of blood in the credits were distracting, I couldn’t focus on the house sigils on discs (I suppose they were sigils, but they disappeared too quickly for me to be able to examine them) and the big picture didn’t seem as clear as the Westeros map. I was surprised that there was no new theme song, but enjoyed very much listening to the old beloved one.
The series itself is really enjoyable for me, interesting characters, confruntations, hints to future conflicts but, like others have already stated, I would have liked some (black) humour. I haven’t read Fire and Blood yet (or rather only the first 80 pages or so), but I am familiar with the dance of the dragons from TWOIAF and, unfortunately, I didn’t encounter any Tyrion or Bronn.
I really enjoyed this episode. Matt Smith and Milly Alcock are standouts for me. They have such good chemistry and it will be interesting to see if Emma D’arcy and Matt click in the same way. My favorite scene of course is Rhaenyra on her dragon calling her uncle out. I am also impressed by how well both speak Valyrian, they have an entire conversation and make it seem so natural. Can’t wait until next week already.
“Viserys meets with the LITERAL CHILD the Velaryons have proposed he marry.”
I liked the show’s willingness to turn the “ick” factor up past eleven, even casting an actress who was physically small for the character’s age. Arranged betrothals of minors, even whilst children, were standard operating procedure for noble houses of Dark Age Europe, and so I was glad to see this uncomfortable piece of realism depicted in the fictional realm of Westeros. As my spouse correctly noted, Paddy Considine “does a great hapless; you know he’ll make the wrong choice, but not for lack of thinking about it.” Sure enough, Viserys picks the wrong minor for a bride, and we’re off to a contest which will make last episode’s tourney look like a particularly restrained high tea.
“She is small and trying to be very good, and it’s tragic.”
What a great performance, actress and character alike! Her bravada in promising the king she’d suffer as many trials in the birthing-bed as the realm required almost made me cry with sadness and rage. Feudalism and ruling monarchy really are terrible forms of government, and we as a species were wise to rid ourselves of them.
Which one will turn out to be a dragon, Daemon or Rhaenyra? I’m guessing Rhaenyra. What say you Lady Sue and Fellow Watchers?
Mr Derp,
What was so hard to understand from his post, he was pretty clear, not that you would care about that since your only intentions here is trying to cause arguments
The opening credits and their not so obvious nature have been commented on a lot in these comments so I’m gonna put it out there. Maybe my comment is a little too late but…
It’s the Targaryen family tree. The structure is Valyria, or Viserys’ current model of it. The “sigils” are supposedly something that represents a specific Targaryen. This is backed up by the fact that the final one is Rhaenyra’s necklace that Daemon gifted her in episode one.
I had no idea what it all was as the opening credits were rolling either. But someone pointed it out on Twitter and mystery solved.
I have to say, I disagree with the people who say that the show lacks humour. For my taste, it is as funny as it needs to be, and this episode made me laugh more than its predecessor. The humour is often more understated than in GoT, but just because there is no drunk fat king yelling about Betsy with big tits, doesn’t mean that there is no humour at all.
I present to you, the four moments that made me audibly chuckle:
1. Viserys putting on a more kingly demenour (correcting his posture, making his voice sound more deep and royal) as soon as he hears the door knock.
2. Otto yelling his guards to seeth their fucking swords as soon as he sees the dragon.
3. The exchange between “Crispin” and Daemon.
4. The scene where 50+ year old king is on a date with a 12-year-old to amuse his council. Especially the scene where Laena recites something about making babies, and Viserys asks if her father made her say it, and Laena looks awkwardly away.
I’m really enjoying HOTD so far, that’s a bit of a relief after GOT finale.
Opening credits: hope they improve it going along, the river of blood is pointless.
Really Loved the scene at dragonstone.
And I’m eager to see how things will play out at the step stones, we need some world building IMO.
It’s a 7/10 for me. It wasn’t as good as last week, but still good. My favorite part was the face off between Daemon and Rhaenyra at Dragonstone. Very intense! I also have to disagree with those who say this episode was slow. I actually think the story is moving along rather quickly. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing yet. Time will tell.
I found the six month jump and Daemon taking over Dragonstone off screen to be a little jarring and it looks like next week will bring another time jump. I’m also finding the plot to be rather predictable. I knew Viserys was going to choose Alicent as his new wife before he announced it. Why else would she have been present at the council meeting? I don’t believe she had ever attended before. I also knew exactly who Corlys was talking to before the reveal. I’m hoping the rest of the series will be able to surprise me.
Well they hooked me! I am really enjoying the acting, the story, the writing. 😍 I like that we are getting the true version of events and it will be interesting to see how it contrasts with the accounts from Fire and Blood. Really enjoying all the characters.
The only thing I am iffy about is the intro (would have preferred seeing the locatìons like in the OG intro, especially since we will be getting new ones) and Mysaria’s accent (that was a choice lol).
It’s just blood lol, we all have it. We’ve watched greyscale get shaved off and puss ooze, we’ve watched heads roll, people flayed, burnt, crucified etc. some blood, coming from no actual human source, really ain’t that bad lol.
I assume you’re referring to my “?” reply to someone else? Well, I suppose I didn’t understand the point of it, considering it was an unhinged literary road rage rant aimed at nobody and it came out of nowhere.
No, I come here to talk about HotD and the GoT world. Conversely, what is your intention in coming here? Please don’t explain. We already know.
I’m enjoying. They’re taking to heart, for now, Tyrion’s thing about the history of the realm being secrets whispered in dark rooms or whatever. It points at why the histories are so poorly known. I’ve seen mentioned elsewhere that Mysaria not actually being pregnant is a change from the books, but that isn’t really true. All we have is the account of a maester 200 years after the fact retelling the account of two other people who weren’t there. All those people would have known is Daemon announced Mysaria was pregnant. That still happened here. It’s interesting in how that gives the writers a lot of leeway to tell their own story without needing to rewrite any plot points.
Some of the more interesting things to me:
– Viserys strongly avoiding war, because of Aegon’s prophecy? He seems reluctant to take any chances weakening his family and getting their dragons killed, knowing the threat that will one day come. It makes him more sympathetic than I expected because of how he presents as an outwardly weak king given no one else knows what he is thinking.
– House Targaryen fled Valyria, after Chekhov’s volcano finally goes off and ends their civilization, and they proceed to go build a castle on a different volcano.
I haven’t seen the episode yet, but I finally watched Episode 1 (which I liked) the labour scene was very well done. It’s suffering from the small setting though. I miss the common folk wondering around. We’ve got miserable rich people and little else, I know that doesn’t change in Ep 2, and probably won’t in future. It’s a strange complaint, because I love Succession with my whole heart and that is essentially the same thing. I have an affection for those characters that hasn’t developed with HoTD yet, and the Targ’s are pretty boring to me. A decent way to pass the time for me, I doubt i’ll get too invested. The success of this means that most of the other spin offs will get made, and i’m excited about that.
I have to say, I was thoroughly disappointed with the credits, difficult to read, dark and think they should have changed the theme. It’s a nice idea, but it hasn’t translated very well, I had no idea that it was a family tree until I read it online
I totally agree with doing what you can to avoid war, but good lord, they have dragons and refuse to use them even when their shipping lines are under attack. That IS weak, IMO.
You could just send one dragon rider for a ride-by-grilling of the crab people and take off before anyone knew what hit them to send a message that you’re not going to put up with that nonsense. Otherwise, what’s the point in having dragons?
The opening credits are too dark and I don’t like watching blood flow for a couple minutes… I wish they would replace the blood with lava fire. They could’ve used music directly associated with Targaryens like… Blood of my Blood song. Most of the characters seem stiff and unnatural… especially Otto Hand of the King and his daughter. Game of Thrones has better dialog and stronger characters with more entertaining personalities. House of the Dragon could use a master of whisperer at the small council meetings. Graphic Battles and who is the True heir is not any better than GOT Season 8. I hope it gets better … 5/10
Knowledge is Power,
I like Milly as Rhaenyra so far, but I don’t really care much for any of the others yet.
Mr Derp,
I like Princess Rhaenyra too… very smart and assertive! I like how Princess Rhaenyra took 3 semi deep breathes and finished with a big deep sigh in the final seconds of the 1st episode.. Jon Snow sighed as he arrives at the Castle Black gate in S8 E6. The 1st episode closing credit song “A song of Ice and Fire” is played during Jon’s final scene too. 1st Episode 9/10. King Aegon’s A song of Ice and Fire dream and the Catspaw Dagger story is what I like best about House of the Dragon so far!
Kattimaijanen,
Kattimaijanen,
And #5- Daemon Targaryan, The Rouge Prince himself, getting called out for pitching a hissy fit by a teenage girl….PRICELESS!
I did enjoy the episode overall, more so than the first one which I thought was solid. I’ll say one thing about this show is that it’s moving very quickly, not really fleshing out the characters very much, and the characters themselves just aren’t as dynamic as the original series. But they’re not bad either and I’m engaged with what’s going on. I guess it’s more plot centric but there’s less emotion. I think certain people take Dave and Dan’s writing for granted (especially their character work), but they’ll all be eating their words when they get hooked into their big series for Netflix, The Three Body Problem.
LatrineDiggerBrian,
I mostly agree. It’s a decent show, but I’m not really all that engaged with the whole who-will-or-won’t-be-heir stuff and I find most of the characters to be rather one-dimensional so far. GoT tried to teach us the pursuit of power is bad, so I think it’s weird to root for any of them to win. I kind of want them all to lose.