House of the Draggin’
Watching House of the Dragon is like watching professional soccer. The pacing is slow, and most episodes are devoted to world-building and character development. And, like a soccer match, most of the game consists of setup, which is periodically punctuated by a thrilling attack that might result in a goal. Since the goals in soccer tend to be far and few between, most of the sport’s appeal lies in the suspense of what might happen.
Of course, people hate soccer for this very reason, and they become tired of waiting for something to happen, however brilliant the players may be at dribbling and passing the ball back and forth for an hour and a half. This problem was something Game of Thrones suffered from—winter couldn’t come soon enough—and the same goes for its spinoff, House of the Dragon: brilliant acting, excellent world-building, tight script, thoughtfully constructed, but slow as mud.
To be fair, the second season of the series does better on this front than the first season, which was the equivalent of a 0-0 game that had to be settled with penalty kicks. Perhaps as a response to the chaotic rush of the final seasons of its predecessor, the creators of House of the Dragon wanted to slow everything down and focus on exposition. As such, the first season centered on King Viserys the Peaceful picking a successor. Lacking a male heir, he settles on his eldest daughter Rhaenyra, breaking with the tradition of having a male king. Soon after, he ends up having two sons anyway, and his brother Daemon is also making claims to succession. All of this is complicated by the fact that everyone in this family has dragons.
Since everything hangs on the question of succession, viewers spend most of the first season waiting for Viserys to die, which he finally does towards the end of it. Meanwhile, we’re introduced to a wide array of characters who may or may not be important in the following seasons. Among this cast, the character who stands out the most is Prince Daemon Targaryen (superbly played by Matt Smith) who is a loose cannon, yet competent and loyal, an ideal foil to his brother King Viserys, who is moderate and squishy to a fault.
Unfortunately, Daemon is sidelined for most of the season with nightmarish delusions that visit him in a haunted castle he decides to occupy. In his place are the two queens, Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower (the widow of Viserys) who are trying to secure the throne for their respective families. While somewhat naive and irresponsible in the first season, Rhaenyra grows into a wise matron who hopes to avoid a war at all costs. By contrast, Alicent experiences the opposite trajectory, starting first as a prudent young woman making sacrifices to elevate her family name only to make a mess of things when her husband dies and her sons ascend the throne.
For all the attention they’re given, neither Rhaenyra nor Alicent are interesting characters. The former is clearly supposed to be the protagonist everyone roots for (once you get over her incestuous marriage with her uncle Daemon) while Alicent and her two sons, the incompetent and perverted Aegon and the sinister and dangerous Aemond, are the antagonists. However, as Rhaenyra reminds everyone in each episode, her hands are tied because she’s overpowered, her husband is incapacitated and pondering treachery, and she can’t risk her personal safety by taking charge. As for Alicent, she comes off as a hypocritical weakling who is constantly mastered by her father, her sons, and nearly every other challenging circumstance.
Although this might suggest something deeper about the female condition and the adversity that even powerful women face because of their sex, it makes for dull characters who don’t really grow or show much agency. By contrast, some of the other characters, like Prince Aemond, Lord Larys, and Tyland Lannister are perfectly played (by Ewan Mitchell, Matthew Needham, and Jefferson Hall respectively), interesting in their own right, and have the most potential for development. Already, they are the ones who push the story forward through their scheming and politicking. However, their motivations tend to be flattened into stereotypes: Aegon is the middle child who overcompensates for his insecurities; Larys is a creepy, conniving weasel who lives for exploiting people’s vulnerabilities; and Tyland is an arrogant hothead who hopes to advance himself at any cost.
Evidently, the effect of relegating these characters to minor roles is to devote more attention to the female characters. Besides Alicent and Rhaenyra, there is Mysaria (Rhaenyra’s confidant) and Princess Rhaenys (Rhaenyra’s great aunt). As one might expect, all of them are quite decent and strong while their male counterparts are corrupt and weak. This unsubtle feminist agenda is really a shame when one remembers the female leads in Game of Thrones—Daenerys Targaryen, Cersie Lannister, Arya Stark Brienne of Tarth—who were also strong yet had their own moral failings.
That said, even with a less compelling cast of characters, House of the Dragon has the great advantage of featuring, well, more dragons. And indeed, this is where the second season shines, with the Targaryen family using their dragons to scorch scores of hapless soldiers and villagers—which is always fun to watch.
Then again, the existence of dragons essentially diminishes the need for ability or virtue among the aspiring leaders. Whoever has more dragons gets what they want and rules the kingdom while those who don’t are forced to serve them. This grim dynamic even causes the once idealistic knight Ser Criston Cole (yet another flawed and morally weak male character) to have an existential crisis, questioning the meaning of everything.
It’s also why the show sometimes feels like an adult version of How to Train Your Dragon. Even though there are a multitude of storylines of each side trying to secure more allies and gain the upper hand, the only one that matters is Rhaenyra enlisting more dragon riders. If she can, she will likely win the war and become the rightful queen. If she cannot, then the bad guys will win, and the show is over. It’s not hard to guess how this eventually plays out.
Nevertheless, despite these weaknesses, it must be said that House of the Dragon, particularly in this second season, is a solid series that holds its own. To return to the soccer analogy, there are actually a couple of goals scored on both sides and the quality of play is still top-notch. Most of the viewers will want to see who wins, but thus far, the game is tied and burdened with plays that ultimately go nowhere. With any hope, there will be more attacks on the goal in the next season, and certain star players will come out of their haunted castles and make their presence felt on the field.
Auguste Meyrat is an English teacher in the Dallas area. He holds an MA in humanities and an MEd in educational leadership. He is the senior editor of The Everyman and has written essays for The Federalist, The American Conservative, and The Imaginative Conservative, as well as the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Follow him on Twitter.
