Hello, everyone! I'm back with another tv show talk, and this one is about House of the Dragon!
So basically this show tells the story in the same universe as Game of Thrones, started in 101 AC (after Aegon I Targaryen's conquest) or 197 years before the events of Game of Thrones. But I heard that it's gonna be an anthology series, so maybe the right words would probably be "this portion of the show". Anyways, so the show so far is telling the story of House Targaryen's civil war that involved dragons (and how they died) between Princess (now queen, I don't care that the books delegitimized her from her titles, also I'm gonna call her "Nyra" in the later part of the post, just because typing "Rhaenyra" time and time again would be exhausting) Rhaenyra Targaryen, the firstborn of King Viserys I Targaryen (her supporters will be called Blacks onward) and her stepbrother, Aegon II Targaryen, the firstborn son of King Viserys I Targaryen (his supporters will be called Greens onward). That's basically the overall story of the show so far. I'm gonna go into detail on what's the story about in the part where I tell you what I like and what I think could be better.
SPOILER ALERT if you haven't seen House of The Dragons or read Fire and Blood, this post will reveal a lot of important events in the show and the book!
The show is based on a basically Targaryen in Westeros' history textbook, called Fire and Blood, so the Dance of the Dragons (what this civil war is officially called in the book) is just a small part of the book, that's why when you watch the series there's gonna be a lot of time jumps, contrary to Game of Thrones, because the events started with King Jahaerys I Targaryen naming his grandson, Viserys, his heir to the Iron Throne until the death of Nyra, that's 30+ years of events in total and there are little to none story compared to how long the events were going on. The first time jump was from Jahaerys naming Viserys heir, until about 15 years later when it was the 10th year of Viserys' reign, and Nyra, his only living child from his first wife Aemma Arryn was already 15 years old. She was named heir (the first female heir to the Iron Throne, mind you) after Viserys' brother, Daemon Targaryen was banished from King's Landing after calling the son that Aemma died giving birth too who would only live only for a day, "heir for a day". For me, Daemon is a menace, and that's what makes his character interesting. Because even though people seeing him as this rogue prince who liked to do whatever the hell he wanted, he actually still cared for his brother and wanted to protect Viserys from people who would use him such as his Hand of the King at the time, Otto Hightower.
Also, if you're familiar with House Targaryen or Game of Thrones in general, the story wouldn't be complete without incest. I mean, Aegon I married his sisters, so did Jahaerys, Viserys married Aemma who was also his first cousin. So, it would be almost natural for Nyra to be enamored with her uncle, Daemon. I mean, yes, the age gap was terrifying, Daemon was almost twice her age, the grooming was there too, but from what I watched was, Nyra was also a mastermind in making this relationship grew. But, I don't support those themes in real life, and since this is a fictional work and from Game of Thrones universe, I could care less. There were some scenes that displayed their romantic tension since almost the start of the show like,
This scene where he gave her a necklace from valyrian steel, or
This scene, in Nyra's wedding party (not to Daemon, but to Laenor Velaryon, her cousin) that is very Sarah J Maas coded, in my opinion, or the scene in the brothel in episode 4, which I'm not gonna put here because, nudity (but they didn't go pass the third stage), and my personal favorite,
This scene in Dragonstone (the ancestral seat of House Targaryen), in which Nyra rode her dragon, Syrax, all the way from King's Landing to confront Daemon in Dragonstone for stealing the dragon egg that was supposed to be her brother's (heir for a day), which Daemon said would be given to his mistress, Lady Mysaria's (she'll be an interesting character in the seasons to come) non existent baby (yes, he lied about the baby, and folded right after Nyra confronted him about it).
The chemistry between Daemon and Nyra was so good, and I know that Milly Alcock, who played young Nyra is an amazing actor, she was contributing to the chemistry as well, but, man, Matt Smith, who played Daemon, is the master of chemistry. I first watched him in Doctor Who, as The Doctor, and he had chemistry with all of his co-stars. Damn, he even had chemistry with The Tardis which was the telephone box. He knew how to play with the emotions and the tension that was already through the roof between Daemon and Nyra. He's also really good with non-verbal acting ), because mostly his character would just stand there and observe others in disgust, but when he talked, he spits literal fire. The perfect example of his non-verbal acting was at the end of episode 3, he was dealing with the problem in Stepstones, which was where the crab feeder attacked House Velaryon's fleet. For years, it was hard to beat the crab feeder and his army because they were surrounded by caves which was advantageous for the crab feeder, so whenever Daemon showed up to their place with his dragon Caraxes,
(Look at that LONG neck)
The crab feeder and his army would hide. But in the end of season 3, with no help of anyone from the King's Landing, despite Daemon and House Velaryon had been asking for help for a long time, Daemon literally used himself as a bait and literally said no words. He was just there to defeat and kill the crab feeder.
Enough about Daemon and Nyra in this pre 10 years time jump, I'm gonna talk about the other side of the story, which was the Greens aka the Hightowers. So, remember King Viserys' Hand of the King, Otto Hightower, so as his advisor, Otto has been planting the ideas of Viserys remarrying so that he can name a new heir because in his belief, female heir is gonna cause war, and amongst the candidates of the new queen was Otto's own daughter, Alicent Hightower, who was asked by Otto himself to "accompany" Viserys, especially after Aemma died.
Alicent at the time was a few years older than Nyra and was her best friend as well. So, when the news broke that Viserys was going to marry Alicent, Nyra was pissed. That caused a fracture in their friendship, added with Otto planting the idea that Alicent got to prepare her firstborn son with Viserys, Aegon to rule so that Nyra could not be queen, spreading the rumor that Daemon had sex with Nyra in the brothel, and Nyra lied to her that nothing happened that night (when in reality she did have sex that night, but with her sworn sword, Criston Cole, the guy that has a very punchable face). I think what made Alicent so angry with Nyra was that basically, Nyra could do anything that she wanted like, having a night out with Daemon, hooking up with people, and still had little to no consequences, while Alicent had to be a dutiful daughter, dutiful wife, queen, caring mother because Viserys was absent most of the time, at a very young age, so she kind of had this resentment toward Nyra. But what Alicent didn't know, it was also hard for Nyra since everything that she did, and will do, would be discredited because she's a woman, especially after Aegon II, Viserys and Alicent's firstborn son, born. Everyone was already forgetting that not only Nyra was still the heir to the Iron Throne, but just the fact that she existed. Like I said, you'll find one way or another to sympathize with all of the characters because they're all very complex.
I really like the writing pre 10 years time jump. Everyone got the chance to shine, and show their characters' complexity. There are many good one-liners throughout a lot of the episodes. The fact that they're relying to words to convey what they wanted to say, is very reminiscent in pre season 6 of Game of Thrones, contrary to just blockbuster scenes to give shock value to the audience. Because, sure the blockbuster scenes were good, but the war of words was the most important thing in Game of Thrones. So, I'm glad that it's back in House of The Dragon.
The Valyrian culture is also very apparent in House of The Dragon, compared to in Game of Thrones. Obviously, it's because House Targaryen was at their prime during The Dance. I love how the characters that are able to speak High Valyrian, speak in the show. Daenerys' in Game of Thrones was good, but since she lost touch with it because she was the last Targaryen for a while, it removed the originality on how it should sound like. While Daemon and Nyra, they sounded like a native speaker, because they are, but the way that Matt and Milly spoke in High Valyrian was very different from how Emilia Clarke spoke it. Matt and Milly's accent was beautiful, I love it everytime I listened to them switching from the common tongue (that's english in Westeros) to High Valyrian for a sense of privacy and intimacy between the two. Other part of the culture that they talked about a lot is of course the bond between the dragons and their riders. It seems that it was shown in House of The Dragon that although we can connect emotionally to our dragon, like Daemon and Caraxes, it is an illusion that Targaryens can control their dragons fully, and it's gonna be apparent in the time jump, which I'm gonna tell you in the next post.
What I think could be better, is the wardrobe department. In the book, Nyra described to have a numerous selection of beautiful and lavish piece of clothing, as you can see from this book art right here,
I love her dress here with the off-the-shoulder fabric/coat, the jewelry is also beautiful, especially the headpiece that she wore on her forehead. Basically she was a fashion queen in the book. While compared to in the TV show, the color selection and the design was pretty bland in my opinion.
Like this dress. This dress is pretty bland in my opinion, compared to the books, compared to Daenerys' in Game of Thrones, mind you this was the prime of House Targaryen, they should've had better clothes. Also, they repeated outfits? Like Nyra wore this dress right here in the start of the show when she was 15, and she wore that as well the morning after the night out with Daemon. I do have a favorite dress of her which I called "the courting dress", because she wore it when she looked for suitors and when she met Laenor Velaryon discussing their terms in marriage, since, he's gay. Like, anyways, this is the dress,
I feel like her dress should be on this level of lavish and glamour at the very least. I hope that they can do better in season 2, but I doubt that. The wardrobe is the only thing that I don't like in the pre time jump episodes.
So, that's all my tv show talk for House of The Dragon pre time jump because my opinion towards the show is gonna be different after the time jump. I'll see you in the next post!
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