House of the Dragon makes a case for going all in on Game of Thrones again
The world of Westeros is just as thrilling as you remember. And maybe that’s a little bit of the problem.
House of the Dragon, the new prequel that returns to the world of Game of Thrones, takes place approximately 172 years before the events of that series. Now we’re seeing a very different King’s Landing, ruled by the Targaryens at the apex of their power. This being a Game of Thrones joint, soon it will all spoil into battles and sex, betrayals and power grabs, politicking both petty and legitimate. But for now, everything is setting up for an epic story.
But since this show is a successor (in our timeline) to the very popular Game of Thrones series, it’s virtually impossible to approach it with a fresh mind. When one makes the choice to sign up for another vast chronicle of Westeros, they’re met with a whole lot of burden about where the story, inevitably, goes. But if the first episode painted with as broad a brush as possible to bring us up to speed on the Westeros of old and its many players, then episode 2 is more of a pointillist portrait of the Targaryen family as it came to be. In “The Rogue Prince,” we zoom in on the finer points of what people care about, all the better setting up House of the Dragon as its own creature entirely.
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Perhaps the strongest thing I can say about House of the Dragon is that almost every detail in the show feels worthwhile, with no danger of pulling too hard and unraveling the tapestry it’s weaving. That might seem like damning with faint praise, but Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) is incredibly interested in details — the Dornish knight who has combat experience, or the jewelry she wears to dinner with her dad, King Viserys (Paddy Considine). That she removes the Valyrian
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