“House of the Dragon”: in the first series, both tragic births and vivid reprisals

Today, on August 22, the premiere of the first series of the long-awaited series “House of the Dragon” finally took place in Russia. In the morning, the episode became available under the title “Descendants of the Dragon”. We have already managed to watch the first episode of “House of the Dragon”, which in the future may grow into a big cult epic no worse than “Game of Thrones”. Attention, spoilers!

You don’t usually expect much from the first episodes of a major series, as they usually only serve to set the right exposure for the plot. The situation in the world, the characters’ characters, light outlines of future conflicts – this is what the viewer expects, and in the best cases receives, from the start of the story. For example, the same pilot episode of Game of Thrones contained almost nothing of value in itself, but only set the necessary development vector for the season. The first truly significant event happened in it only at the very end, when Jaime pushed Bran off the tower.

All the more surprising is how meaningful the beginning of the first season of the House of the Dragon turned out to be. Of course, there is no doubt that the main portion of clashes, intrigues and unexpected turns is still ahead of us. But already “Heirs of the Dragon” alone contains everything for which we fell in love with the original series, and in a very concentrated form.

The series devotes only about 20 minutes of its hour of running time to pure exposure. During this time, we are very superficially presented with the Targaryen era, its political structure, heroes and, of course, dragons. This part of the episode pleases primarily with its visuals: locations, royal fire-breathing pets and all other special effects are worked out much better and in more detail than in the same Game of Thrones. And all these 20 minutes give a sense of the scale of what is happening. Despite the relative isolation of the introduction, somehow the creators managed to get from the material a sense of the real significance of these events for the entire history of the continent.

But the first part of the series ends, and with it the time of passive exposure ends. Suddenly, the series begins to throw viewers one unexpected turn after another, to shine with action scenes, or to demonstrate the famous brutality of the Martin universe in all its glory. In just one episode, we got Damon’s massacre of criminals in the slums, and the tragic birth of Queen Aimma, one of the most emotionally difficult moments in the entire franchise, and a solemn duel in King’s Landing, where a commoner overcomes an arrogant prince in a fair fight. At such moments, the “House of the Dragon” really begins to resemble its predecessor in his best years.

Moreover, the spectacularity of these scenes is achieved not only thanks to the talented story of Martin and his co-writers, but also due to the prettier direction. The creators clearly decided to diversify their arsenal of film techniques in comparison with the “Game of Thrones”, which only at the very end could boast of impressive cinematography. Here, every key moment of the story, every important editing transition is provided with some sophisticated directorial “zest” that adds artistic overtones to it. What is the parallel comparison of cutting the queen’s stomach during childbirth with the clanging of knights’ swords at the tournament.

Rainier turned into a decoration, Viserys is annoying

“Game of Thrones” could boast of a whole scattering of charismatic, well-developed characters, each of which somehow managed to reveal itself over the 8 seasons of the series. Does the House of the Dragon feel the potential to reach the same heights?

In fact, it is rather difficult to unambiguously answer this question. And it’s not at all that this is just the first series. But rather, that these characters themselves turned out to be very heterogeneous in quality.

Take Rainier, for example, who the show has so far been actively promoting as the main character. At the beginning of her journey, she is young and inexperienced. Throughout the first part of the series, she serves as a kind of guide character for us, through her the viewer is explained the features of this world and introduced to other characters. But in the second part, where the action begins, she simply turns into a passive decoration in the royal tournament box. The creators seem to be trying to give her some kind of internal conflict towards the end, quarrel with her father or suddenly dump the title of heir to the throne on her, but this does not improve the situation.

King Viserys I turned out to be very annoying. He always behaves stupidly, fearfully, naively, and when he tries to show his royal power, it already looks simply comical. It does not at all guess the wise diplomat from the original book, who tried to keep the peace at any cost. If the canonical Viserys sacrificed his own wife in the name of maintaining stability, then the serial version of him is more likely acting simply out of fear that otherwise the king might be overthrown.

However, if anyone in the first episode can be singled out in a positive way, it is Damon Targaryen, the first in line heir to the throne, played by Matt Smith. He is short-tempered, active and obviously very intelligent. With his charisma, he literally steals every scene in which he appears. Thanks to Smith’s bright personality and excellent performance, he is simply a pleasure to watch. However, he, of course, is far from being the most positive hero.

Also suddenly an interesting character was Otto Hightower. He is cunning and cunning, but at the same time not devoid of personal drama and clearly cares about the future of the kingdom. Apparently, he will play in history about the same role as Petyr Baelish in the Game of Thrones.

Reviews from critics

In general, the beginning of the series can be called quite good: it has already managed to surprise with the density and content of the scenes, introduce several charismatic characters and give a good intrigue for the sequel. The main question in this case is whether he can maintain such a level for at least one season, not to mention the entire show? Will it develop or degrade?

Of course, it is impossible to answer this in advance. But, fortunately, right before the premiere, some critics, including Russian ones, were allowed to watch the first 6 episodes of the season in advance. They immediately shared their opinion about what they saw with a wide audience.

According to them, in general, so far the series leaves not such a positive impression. They called the first half of the season rather crumpled, very local and poor in interesting characters.

At the same time, almost everyone praised the action scenes and rich cast. Also, some critics expressed the hope that the episodes they watched would only be the beginning of a future storyline that would have every chance of surpassing Game of Thrones.