House of the Dragon

THRONES, Y’ALL!

I’m not going to lie, after the shitshow that was Game of Thrones’ final season I lost a LOT of interest in the goings on of Westeros, so when I found out HBO was going to put more money into the franchise with a spinoff, I was spitefully uninterested and didn’t for a second intend on giving it any of my attention.

BUT, when the premiere came, curiosity got the better of me. I gave the show a chance and I couldn’t be happier that I did. It’s SO good, and we’re only two episodes in (with a second season being greenlit just a few days ago)! No matter how f*cking stupid it was for Arya to be the one to kill the Night King… no matter how badly I want to smack someone when I think of Jon Snow getting away with murder… NO MATTER the deep seated hatred I will always have for whatever numbskull decided to have Brienne of F*cking Tarth crying in the snow over a one-handed man in love with his own twin sister………………. it looks like I’m not totally over the lore of Westeros just yet.

And thankfully not. I’ll always get annoyed when I think of Thrones’ final season, but I can put those feelings aside for House of the Dragon because none of it is about Arya, or Jon, or Bran, or my queen Sansa. We’re talking about Daenerys and nem. Not even Daenerys, though. Just nem. Her ancestors. And while House Targaryen was never my favorite storyline in Thrones, I liked it enough that I’m curious to see what their House was like almost 200 years prior to the events of Thrones and what led to their eventual downfall. Plus, not engaging in the discourse around the spinoff and missing out on Reddit threads and debates and just not being a part of one of the largest cultural phenomena of my lifetime is just not something I could do. I don’t like to miss out on things. So here we are.

I won’t get into the background of House of the Dragon, mostly because I can’t. I haven’t read Fire & Blood or any of the A Song of Ice and Fire books (aside from the first book, A Game of Thrones), so everything I know about House Targaryen comes from the core series. Basically, we’re watching the beginning of the end of House Targaryen. They marry their cousins and ride dragons, okay? And obviously when you mix up incest brains with giant, fire-breathing reptiles, eventually shit’s gonna go down. That’s pretty much all anyone needs to know about the dragon family going into House of the Dragon. They crazy.

So, because I waited too late to get this post published before the second episode premiered on the 28th (life was life-ing again, y’all), here are some thoughts I had on House of the Dragon’s first two episodes: The Heirs of the Dragon and The Rogue Prince.

• Are there any good dads in Westeros? – Worst Father of the Year Award goes to… all of them. Otto Hightower sucks (shoutout to Daemon for saying what we were all thinking). Corlys Velaryon sucks. Viserys sucks. They’re all just… ugh. I don’t care that Otto and Corlys are being strategic about their Houses’ position by pimping out their teenage and prepubescent daughters, I really don’t. I don’t care that once upon a time it was totally normal for teen girls to be married off to men old enough to be their fathers and grandfathers. It’s grosssssssss. And this is a fictional world. Dragons roam the earth but suddenly when it comes to the age of consent we need to be cognizant of real-world practices? Give me a break.
  
• Are there any good wigs in Westeros? The wealthiest family in the land and this is the best they can do? WHERE ARE THE ROYAL LACE LAYERS??
  
  
  
• DRACARYS. I don’t think much needs to be said about this. We all know that iconic word means something’s (or someone’s) getting roasted. Milly Alcock rolling the /r/ in the word, though??? Chef’s kiss. Perfect. Chills down my spine.
  
• Daemon Targaryen is probably going to be a favorite of mine. I like this guy. He creeps me out, but he seems, so far, to be just chaotic enough that I can tell I’m going to enjoy watching him, but not so chaotic that he stresses me out like Ramsay Bolton or that he’s so chaotic he’s cartoony like Euron Gr*yjoy.
  
  My favorite thing about Daemon is that while he clearly has issues with his family, particularly his idiot king brother, he loves his family and will protect them as he sees fit. His final line to Corlys in The Rogue Prince, says it all. HOWEVER. He’s a huge ass, too. I like watching the guy but clearly a person who would make a mock toast to a dead infant is not a good person. Poor little Baelon is probably like, “Now why am I in it?” So Daemon is cool… but he’s also not. But he’s a Targaryen no matter what and he’s bound to do something real crazy pretty soon, and I can’t wait to see what it is.

I will speak of my brother as I wish. You will not.

Prince Daemon, The Rogue Prince

• DRAGONS! I think the dragons look amazing so far in HotD. I don’t usually pay much mind to special effects in TV, but I couldn’t make this post without mentioning what a great job the special effects team has done so far with those dragons. Caraxes and Syrax look incredible, especially in that intense showdown scene.
  
  

So that’s pretty much all I’ve got for initial thoughts about the first two episodes of House of the Dragon for now. This definitely isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s a decent enough start for me. Overall, again, I’m super excited about the rest of the season and I am SO glad I decided to give the series a chance after all.

From this point on, I’m debating whether I’ll do weekly posts on the episodes, or if I’ll just come back at the end of the first season for a full season recap – it really just depends on how quickly I can get posts out – but I will definitely maybe be back at some point in the future to talk about the rest of what House of the Dragon is going to hit us with. Until next time!

Byyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! 😘