“House of the Dragon”: the second series disappointed with strange moves

Contents of the second series of “House of the Dragon”

The plot of the second episode was completely devoted to politics. There are not even modest local battle scenes here, like a tournament from the “Heirs of the Dragon”, but there are a lot of palace intrigues, new knowledge about the world of Westeros and the disclosure of the psychology of the characters.

Events unfold six months after the death of Ayma Arryn and her child in the first series. The head of the great house of Velarion, “Sea Serpent” Corlis, is worried that his ships are being attacked by pirates from the Steps (as the free islands in the Narrow Sea are called). He asks Viserys to deal with those who encroach on the riches of his fleet. But the king is afraid that the extermination of the bandits may lead to war with the Free States, which have established their protectorate over the Steps. He refuses Corlis such a risky favor, causing Velarion to become furious.

Viserys understands that it is not worth angering his most powerful vassal. Secretly, the king makes a tempting offer to the “Sea Serpent”: he will render him any reasonable service, and in return he will remain faithful to the throne. However, he did not take into account that Korlis wants only one thing – to intermarry his family with the Targaryens.

Velarion offers the king to marry his young daughter Leina, which will greatly strengthen both the authority of his family and the political power of Viserys. The very thought of him marrying a little girl shocks the monarch, but his advisers insist that such a decision would be a favorable compromise for all parties.

At the same time, Reynira is trying to prove to her father that she is worthy of being the heir to the throne and is already capable of making important decisions herself. She wants to deal with the problem of the pirates from the Steps herself, but the king, without even hesitation, refuses.

Fate gives the heiress another good chance to prove herself when Viserys’ restless brother Damon steals a dragon egg from the treasury. The relic must be returned, but no one will dare to fight with Prince Targaryen himself. The girl decides to take matters into her own hands and goes to an audience with her unlucky uncle.

The Vicious Prince was boring

The second series of “House of the Dragon” cannot be called at least to some extent key, in contrast to the beginning of the series. Before us is quite a typical transitional episode, which sets up the plot and atmosphere for future confrontations. At the same time, in a strange way, many of the strengths of the “Heirs of the Dragon” seemed to be lost here.

For example, the beautiful, thoughtful direction from the first series was simply forgotten in the sequel. No more unusual editing, interesting camera work or some outstanding purely cinematic effects. Everything is done very straightforward, in a sense even clumsy, like in the first season of Game of Thrones. At the same time, the creators like to demonstrate that they were not deprived of the budget: the locations still look impressive and detailed, the dragons are still very intimidating, and the landscapes are simply magnificent. But none of the above is emphasized to the proper degree by artistic development, from which it begins to resemble an expensive theater rather than an expensive movie.

Also this time, the ratio of exposure and real screen action is not at all happy. If the first series was literally perfect in terms of how it fit in an introductory story about the world and big important events, then here the emphasis has shifted heavily towards pure verbal narrative.

Of course, we were still shown the clash of Damon and Otto on Dragonstone and Viserys’s attempts to calm the house of Velaryons, but these moments cannot be called fully ideal and even more valuable in themselves. And besides them, in the series there is practically nothing for the eye to catch on: only continuous conversations in dark corridors on the same topics, and, as already mentioned, not very exquisitely filmed.

Scale also suffered. If earlier there was a clear feeling that we are witnessing events that will determine the fate of Westeros for hundreds of years to come, now even the most important political crisis, the clash between Prince Damon and the troops of the royal guard, looks like a small-town skirmish. However, the situation is still partly saved by interesting characters.

Rainier is changing before our eyes

In terms of characters, the situation is still rather ambiguous, although the show is clearly trying to take some steps in this direction.

Rainier is starting to look more like the main character of the story due to the fact that the writers give her more independence with each new scene. Now she can object to her father, and go against the will of the lords, and even deal with a big royal scandal on her own. It seems that her character has finally begun to emerge. Although there are still some doubts about the ability of actress Millie Alcock to embody a strong character. It cannot be said that the girl copes with the role badly, but after her performance, the impression remains that she is a little emotionally under-pressing every scene.

More and more pleased and Otto Hightower. In this series, he got a little more screen time, thanks to which the character got more opportunity to open up. He is smart and very cunning, and his true motives still remain shrouded in mystery. In the confrontation scene with Damon, he was able to show real fortitude, not backing down even after the appearance of the giant Blood Serpent.

Also, representatives of the Velaryons turned out to be unexpectedly high-quality heroes. Korlis has a very strong martial charisma, and his wife Rhaenys is full of wisdom, which she has learned over her long years in the royal court. In addition, in political games, spouses have their own interests, which they intend to defend at any cost. Therefore, it becomes especially interesting to watch their actions.

Disappointingly little attention was given to Damon this time. Despite the fact that the series is called “The Vicious Prince”, and the younger Targaryen is clearly meant, the prince himself in the episode turned out to be simply criminally small. It is shown in literally three scenes, with the last two lasting no more than two minutes. The last episode showed him as one of the most interesting characters in history, but here you just don’t have time to enjoy his arrogant villainous charisma.

But the situation with Viserys has not changed in any way. The king is still the most annoying character on the show: weak-willed, indecisive, and very easy to manipulate. If his past sins could be justified by the fact that he seeks to preserve the world at any cost, then in this episode his refusal to marry the daughter of the Velaryons can only be called banal stupidity and selfishness. It turns out that the monarch is ready to sacrifice others for the sake of peace, but not himself.

In general, because of the mixture of all of the above, it seems that the series has gone the wrong way. The Wicked Prince still has a lot of strong positives, but by and large, it’s just plain boring to watch. The series turned out to be quite passable. Of course, given HBO’s plans to develop the show for many years to come, the appearance of episodes of gag in it is inevitable. It’s just that the fact that a very pleasant at first series has acquired a dull aftertaste is still disappointing. And if the creators do not adjust their course in any way during the course of the plot, then the “House of the Dragon” can be considered a failure at all.

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