House of the Dragon 1x01 "Heirs of the Dragon"

[CharlesPhipps]

https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogs ... uncil.html

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 1x09 "THE GREEN COUNCIL" is easily the best of the episodes so far. I think this will be a controversial decision but it's how I feel. After a lot of issues with previous episodes, I think this masterfully builds on what has come before and sets up the conflict between the Blacks and the Greens that will hopefully begin next book.

The premise is that King Viserys has finally died and Alicent believes that he named Aegon his heir on his deathbed. She proceeds to go to the Small Council and announce this stunning fact, only to find out they're already planning on naming Aegon the heir regardless of the king's wishes. Furthermore, they plan on killing Rhaenyra and her heirs (as well as Daemon) because this was always their plan.

Alicent is appalled by this, which is kind of ridiculous because Otto has been stating that Rhaenyra would have to kill her children for Aegon's entire life. It apparently never occurred to Alicent in all this time that the reverse would be true. However, the wheels are already in motion for Aegon II's usurpation and begin with Ser Criston Cole murdering a member of the Small Council. The fact Aegon II is drunk in some brothel or child fighting pit (seriously, King's Landing is the Gotham City of fantasy settings) and can't be found is not enough to delay their treason.

I'm going to state that I think all the people complaining about the Greens getting vilified and the Blacks getting whitewashed missed the point that this provides honest-to-God stakes for the conflict. Aegon II is utterly unworthy of the throne and someone who will only bring misery and death to those around him. The fact he's controlled by Otto and his deluded mother doesn't make it any better. It means that we actually care how this conflict ends and I think that's important for this kind of story.

I really like how awful Otto is and he's not even competant at his scheming. One of the first things he does is start hanging Great Lords of the realm when they refuse to bend the knee. The Lannisters knew this was a mistake when they threw Ned in the dungeon and compelled his obedience through threats to his family. He's an obvious, foul, and unpleasant manipulator that only got as far as he did thanks to his daughter's better politicking. Hell, he's only Hand of the King because of her and Larys working together.

The real MVP of this episode, though, is Princess Rhaenys. The Queen who Never was is being held under house arrest as they try to figure out if she supports Princess Rhanyra's claim or not. Rhaenyra really doesn't want to, suspecting her of killing Laenor, but the fact is that she's also betrothed her children to Rhaenyra's. There's also the fact that the Hightowers are scheming, grasping, and repulsive upstarts dancing on her cousin's grave. She gets both a silly and awesome scene at the end where I can only think, "You are going to regret not saying a single word here."

I also liked the depiction of Aemond this episode as we find out he's an erudite, serious, and well-trained man ready to serve the kingdom. In other words, everything his brother is not. I think he even felt out Criston Cole over whether it would be justified to murder his brother but the traitor Kingsguardsman just sort of deliberately ignored it. One of the rare subtle scenes between both and I think worked really well.

Some people are going to be obsessed with the whole "foot fetish" thing but I actually think it actually serves a useful in-story purpose. Alicent has cloaked herself in the "Madonna/Whore" complex with her serving as the holy good one to the evil sexualized Rhaenyra. The fact she's forced to somewhat prostitute herself to Larys to work against her own father is an important bit of characterization for showing she's not any better. Indeed, Rhaenys has her number that she doesn't want to break free but put a window in her prison.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this episode and think it may be my favorite all. The scheming and firm commitment to just what a scummy bunch of monsters the Greens are, finally gives us a reason to care that they be kept from the throne at all costs. We also get some solid politicking and brutal atrocities. If they can keep this up through the Dance then I'll be all over this series for years to come.

10/10

[stryke]

For such a disgusting person I'm genuinely impressed by Aegon in this ep. He gets to be entirely self aware he's scum and his understanding is spot on. Then the peasantry cheer, cheering purely because he's a guy, and finally for the first time he feels loved by someone and suddenly being king doesn't sound so bad.

[CharlesPhipps]

For such a disgusting person I'm genuinely impressed by Aegon in this ep. He gets to be entirely self aware he's scum and his understanding is spot on. Then the peasantry cheer, cheering purely because he's a guy, and finally for the first time he feels loved by someone and suddenly being king doesn't sound so bad.

Well they cheer also because of all the armed men around them.

[stryke]

Sure that's a factor but they set it up with the visit to the play that the common folk are very much in favour of being led by someone with a dick.

[McAvoy]

I will say it again. I do like they are trying to make each side have their pros as well cons. So that the viewer may be able to side with the Greens or the Blacks.

Reminds me of when HBO tried to do after the first season of Game of Thrones.

[CharlesPhipps]

https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogs ... eview.html

Do you hate the Greens? I know I do. George R.R. Martin stated when he wrote The Dance of the Dragons, he expected fans to be divided on which side to support. Then he found out that it was something like 90% in support of the Blacks and 10% in support of the Greens. The show has actually probably modified those numbers but it's now, 80% support of the Blacks and 20% people who think the Greens aren't being portrayed right due to treating them as the scumbags they are.

I admit, if you couldn't tell, I'm a bit biased in my Pro-Rhaenyra support. I think the Greens being a bunch of scheming evil bastards is one of the things necessary to give any weight to the Dance of the Dragons. I feel like they should be the most contemptible scummy monsters imaginable while the Blacks should be antiheroes who are facing someone worse with just a DASH of a question whether it matters which side is on the throne because the common people will suffer the most no matter what.

However, whether or not you support #TeamAlicent or #TeamRhaenyra, the fact is you've been waiting for the civil war to happen between House Targaryen's three branches. Yes, I'm throwing in the Velaryons there. Everyone knew there was eventually going to be a war between the dragonriders and we all just wanted to see how it would come about. Indeed, HBO executives reportedly wanted to start with the Dance of the Dragons and had to be persuaded by George R.R. Martin to give it a season of build-up.

The premise is that Rhaenys arrived at Dragonstone and tells Daemon and Rhaenyra that Aegon has crowned himself King of Westeros. Rhaneyra is furious but not quite ready to start a war since it's clear that not nearly the level of support she expects is available and House Velayron is an uncertain ally at best. Corys and Rhaenys decide to throw their lot in with Rhaenyra anyway, mostly because Rhaenyra is showing restraint, but Otto provides an unexpected offer of terms that would allow her to back down with dignity. Daemon, of course, is furious and almost strangles his wife over it.

What follows is an interesting depiction of Rhaenyra's mindset as she really does want to be a good ruler and not tear the realm apart. I like Daemon's reaction, though, because he points out Viserys may have been a fan of omens as well as prophecies because it allowed him to think he was more important than he was--a mediocore king over an utterly uninteresting time. However, the losses she suffers in this episode pile up with her father dying, her baby being stillborn, and the horrifying death of one of her sons. I can understand when and where she breaks in deciding to burn them all ala Aerys II.

Speaking of which, the actual beginning of the Dance is interesting to interpret from the perspective that Aemond didn't intend to kill his nephew. He was clearly interested in scaring the living crap out of him by chasing him down but lost control of the world's largest dragon. Which is a a nice callback to Viserys trying to warn everyone that the dragons are not really under their control. It's also still Aemond's fault, like aiming a gun at his nephew to scare him only for it to go off.

This episode was tense and built on a lot of the things I liked about the previous episodes. As stated, without the time jumps, the show feels much-much stronger. We needed the cast to be able to follow-up on events from story to story. Plot elements are also not being tossed away like Corys thinking Rhaenyra had something to do with Laenor's death. I'm not sure I quite buy the fact that he still intends to support her but since he does view her children as his grandchildren, maybe that's enough.

Overall, I've had my issues with the season. I've felt the time-jumps have absolutely killed the pacing, that some of the plot twists were unnecessary (like Viserys' delerium being misinterpreted or Criston Cole not getting any punishment for multiple murders), Alicent's characterization has been all over the place, and way too many deleted scenes. They cut away a lot of scenes that deserved to be in the story. Still, I think we've finally reached a point where actions can be properly followed up on.

[McAvoy]

I enjoyed the finale. It was a nice slow lead up to the final straw.

She lost her father, her baby and now one of her sons in basically one day. Maybe more than one day. News travels fast but not when it's not on foot. But still enough to make anyone snap.

The final scene of the Big Oops makes you think how much more growing Drogon had compared to the much older Dragons. Luke's own dragon looks like to about the size of Drogon back in season 4-5.

[CharlesPhipps]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON is a series I have a lot of mixed feelings on, mostly positive, but some negative. I was supporting an adaptation of the Dance of the Dragons from the very beginning. It's one of the most important events of Westeros' history as well as one of the few periods with as much intrigue as well as (to be honest) trashy relationships to make a series. I not just loved it from FIRE AND BLOOD but THE WORLD OF FIRE AND ICE as well as the two novellas ("The Princess and the Queen", "The Rogue Prince") that I read long before this. I think it could have easily been a fantastic seven season series.

Sadly, it's going to be a three- or four-season series. This is something I will bring up as the biggest weakness of House of Dragons in that this show really runs past its most interesting concepts. The first eight episodes go through about twenty years of time with barely a moment to pause for breath. We could have easily spent two or three seasons dealing with just the build-up to the Dance with non-book fangs strung along by things like Criston Cole/Rhaenyra, Laena the Dragon Rider, and the shocking swerve of Laenor being gay.

I am not going to complain too much about the wasted opportunities, though, because I am so glad to have George R.R. Martin's work once more onscreen. In the end, I believe fidelity to his source material is the primary source for the success of HBO's fantasy milieu. When they stick close to the source material, they succeed and when they drift apart, they fail. I may think there's some places they can and did improve on George's work (I think the Velaryon race lift was brilliant and also appreciated the changes to good king Viserys) but really it's the added fidelity to the source material that made HOTD stand above the final seasons of Game of Thrones.

The premise for those who haven't experienced the joys of the show is that it is 400 years before the events of Game of Thrones. King Viserys (Paddy Considine) is the monarch of Westeros after being selected as heir despite his older cousin, Rhaenys, having her own claim. He is a mediocre man, easily led around by his Hand, and Small Council. Events lead him to remove his brother, Daemon (Matt Smith), from the line of succession for his daughter, Rhaenyra (Mily Alcock and Emma D'Arcy).

This is already a big issue for the patriarchal sexist culture of Westeros but becomes even worse when Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) and his daughter, Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey and Olivia Cooke), scheme to place the king's later-born son, Aegon II, on the throne. In the show but not the book, Alicent and Rhaenyra begin as good friends. What follows is essentially ten episodes of palace intrigue, marriages, deaths, and other business that leads to them being on opposite sides of a civil war.

There's a lot to recommend about the show and I would love to give this a ten out of ten. But I can't help but feel like it is "yada-yada-ing" past the good parts. The effects are great, the acting is good, and the dragons are dragons. The sets and costuming is a step up from Game of Thrones as well. I'm not here for the CGI dragons but I'm not-not here for the dragons if you catch my drift.

Some of the characters suffered from changes in the books as Alicent Hightower's literary straightforward scheming evil matriarch bears little resemblance to the show's woman who just wants to do the right thing yet keeps making the worst possible decisions. Daemon also seems to zigzag from being a complete monster to someone showing a good deal more humanity. Other characters, like Mysaria, just get stuck with outrageously bad directing. Seriously, who gave her that accent versus asking her to speak with her normal one? Others get expanded on like Laenor being a badass warrior AND gay.

Still, overall, it was a victim of its own premise. They didn't want to commit the time needed to developing the drama and inter-family rivalries that the material warranted. They wanted to jump to the war directly and I'm of the mind that is the least interesting part of the story. The characters also suffered a bit for the fact they needed to be antagonistic yet not hate one another when one or the other would be much better.

8/10

[McAvoy]

https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogs ... eview.html

Do you hate the Greens? I know I do. George R.R. Martin stated when he wrote The Dance of the Dragons, he expected fans to be divided on which side to support. Then he found out that it was something like 90% in support of the Blacks and 10% in support of the Greens. The show has actually probably modified those numbers but it's now, 80% support of the Blacks and 20% people who think the Greens aren't being portrayed right due to treating them as the scumbags they are.

I admit, if you couldn't tell, I'm a bit biased in my Pro-Rhaenyra support. I think the Greens being a bunch of scheming evil bastards is one of the things necessary to give any weight to the Dance of the Dragons. I feel like they should be the most contemptible scummy monsters imaginable while the Blacks should be antiheroes who are facing someone worse with just a DASH of a question whether it matters which side is on the throne because the common people will suffer the most no matter what.

However, whether or not you support #TeamAlicent or #TeamRhaenyra, the fact is you've been waiting for the civil war to happen between House Targaryen's three branches. Yes, I'm throwing in the Velaryons there. Everyone knew there was eventually going to be a war between the dragonriders and we all just wanted to see how it would come about. Indeed, HBO executives reportedly wanted to start with the Dance of the Dragons and had to be persuaded by George R.R. Martin to give it a season of build-up.

The premise is that Rhaenys arrived at Dragonstone and tells Daemon and Rhaenyra that Aegon has crowned himself King of Westeros. Rhaneyra is furious but not quite ready to start a war since it's clear that not nearly the level of support she expects is available and House Velayron is an uncertain ally at best. Corys and Rhaenys decide to throw their lot in with Rhaenyra anyway, mostly because Rhaenyra is showing restraint, but Otto provides an unexpected offer of terms that would allow her to back down with dignity. Daemon, of course, is furious and almost strangles his wife over it.

What follows is an interesting depiction of Rhaenyra's mindset as she really does want to be a good ruler and not tear the realm apart. I like Daemon's reaction, though, because he points out Viserys may have been a fan of omens as well as prophecies because it allowed him to think he was more important than he was--a mediocore king over an utterly uninteresting time. However, the losses she suffers in this episode pile up with her father dying, her baby being stillborn, and the horrifying death of one of her sons. I can understand when and where she breaks in deciding to burn them all ala Aerys II.

Speaking of which, the actual beginning of the Dance is interesting to interpret from the perspective that Aemond didn't intend to kill his nephew. He was clearly interested in scaring the living crap out of him by chasing him down but lost control of the world's largest dragon. Which is a a nice callback to Viserys trying to warn everyone that the dragons are not really under their control. It's also still Aemond's fault, like aiming a gun at his nephew to scare him only for it to go off.

This episode was tense and built on a lot of the things I liked about the previous episodes. As stated, without the time jumps, the show feels much-much stronger. We needed the cast to be able to follow-up on events from story to story. Plot elements are also not being tossed away like Corys thinking Rhaenyra had something to do with Laenor's death. I'm not sure I quite buy the fact that he still intends to support her but since he does view her children as his grandchildren, maybe that's enough.

Overall, I've had my issues with the season. I've felt the time-jumps have absolutely killed the pacing, that some of the plot twists were unnecessary (like Viserys' delerium being misinterpreted or Criston Cole not getting any punishment for multiple murders), Alicent's characterization has been all over the place, and way too many deleted scenes. They cut away a lot of scenes that deserved to be in the story. Still, I think we've finally reached a point where actions can be properly followed up on.

They have to create some sort of drama between the Greens and the Blacks. In the books, it was pretty straightforward. Alicent was scheming queen who wanted her son to be King and Rhaenyra was just trying to defend her birthright.

I do agree that this season should have been stretched out more so we get a better sense of the characters when they are younger. The time jumps would be less jarring. Maybe get more political intrigue with the two sides slowly building up.

HBO wanted it to start the war from episode one. It was Martin that convinced them to have a season to build it up. Maybe if given the chance without HBO being that involved the show runners would have done a two season lead up.

Season 2 will definitely feature more of Westeros. One of the criticisms is that the series seems smaller since most of it happens at Kings Landing or Dragonstone. Whereas Season 1 of Game of Thrones was all over the place making it feel bigger.