What is all this horror for? But it’s probably not just for the crown, one war party leader implores the other. But it’s probably not just for the ratings, the viewer hopes.
At the end of the opening episode of the second season of the series “House of the Dragon” a taboo is broken. Violence against women and children should no longer be shown as explicitly in the spinoff as in the parent series “Game of Thrones” – this was what the producers had proclaimed after some criticism beforehand. They stick to this and do not show the crime – instead they let you hear how the knife in the children’s room runs through flesh and bone, back and forth, over and over again.
Without any consideration for those affected, the atrocity is immediately exploited to send a clear message: monsters capable of such an act must be destroyed. War is unavoidable.
Even in the first season there were several alleged references to the present, the most shocking of which was added by the writers around showrunner Ryan Condal to the literary source by George RR Martin himself. While abortion bans were being tightened in the USA, Poland and other countries, the series makers showed how in Westeros, unborn life is also given priority over that of a helpless mother, without compromise and with the active help of men.
The new horror show in the children’s room can also be found in Martin’s fictional history book “Fire and Blood”. However, the decision to adapt it into the series and stage it in this way is a creative balancing act after October 7th, which leaves at least a bitter aftertaste in a mainstream fantasy story of this magnitude.
Emotional restart
Other weaknesses of the new season are more innocuous. For example, the fact that a large part of the first four episodes, which were made available to the press in advance, take place in dimly lit fortresses, where the fate of characters is discussed at stone tablets, which even fans (and only fans tune in to the second season of a prequel) are unlikely to remember – and not just because the first season was released two years ago.
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As a reminder: In the first season, a dispute over the succession to the throne broke out in the Targaryen family, whose members have a penchant for madness and no fear of incest. After the incumbent King Viserys (Paddy Considine) had long since made the scandalous decision to proclaim his daughter (!) Rhaenyra as his successor, her long-time best friend and short-term stepmother Alicent (Olivia Cooke) finally interpreted the ruler’s murmurings on his deathbed as a change of heart. Barely widowed, she installed her son Aegon on the Iron Throne and left Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), now married to her uncle Daemon (Matt Smith), as the anti-queen in exile.
This backstory of the central conflict, which will lead to the downfall of House Targaryen and has now finally broken out, spanned almost two decades. Actors were replaced and time jumps were rushed; names like Daemon, Aegon, Aemond, Rhaenyra, Rhaenys and Rhaena don’t exactly jog your memory. Emotionally, viewers now have to start all over again. In addition, in the inevitable comparison of quality, “House of the Dragon” continues to suffer at least as much from the legacy of “Game of Thrones” as it benefits from it in terms of attention.
Living atom bombs
While the original series masterfully managed to tell a large universal story about power relations as a brutal soap opera, the powerless in “House of the Dragon” remain largely invisible. The nobles pull their ego tricks; there is no Arya here who wants to destroy structures that the little people suffer from, no Whitewalkers as the personification of evil that must be defeated together.
Instead: dragons. And it probably wasn’t a bad decision to invest the production budget in the CGI creatures instead of in external motifs and large battles. The majestic beasts continue to form the backbone of the plot, as living equivalents of atom bombs whose existence changes the whole world. And who also have a touching relationship with the one person who is allowed to sit on their backs.
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There are also a few strong dragon-free scenes in these first four episodes. A scuffle between teenagers, for example, which is cut to a battlefield with ravens circling above. Or a sword fight between twins who are supposed to kill each other for the interchangeable motives of their rulers.
But it is only when the dragons fly towards the enemy, bite each other, and sensationally turn forests and people into ash that you are finally caught out, in the spirit of François Truffaut: “There is no such thing as an anti-war film.” At least for all the horror.