How ‘House Of The Dragon’ Could End Up Better Than ‘Game Of Thrones’

House Of The Dragon’s Season 1 premiere was an excellent first outing, introducing audiences to a whole new side of Westeros set nearly 200 years before the events of Game Of Thrones. The show’s second episode was less violent and didn’t have any gut-wrenching scenes of childbirth, but still expertly set the stage for conflicts to come.

The story of Viserys I Targaryen and his struggle to produce a male heir is a compelling one, though it burns much slower than the previous show, and deals almost exclusively with House Targaryen rather than bounce between Starks, Lannisters, Targaryens and all the rest.

It is set primarily in King’s Landing, and most of its most brutal moments—largely of the backstabbing and betrayal variety—are set in the Red Keep itself. There are dragons and battles and other locations as well, but the heart of House Of The Dragon is politics and succession (at least until civil war breaks out, which seems likely).

While this does restrict the scale and cope of the show compared to its predecessor, it also presents new opportunities. In fact, I believe that House Of The Dragon has two major advantages over Game Of Thrones.

MORE FROM FORBES‘House Of The Dragon’ Review: Not As Good As ‘Game Of Thrones’By Erik Kain

Dragon Avoids Epic Fantasy Tropes (Mostly)

One thing I like about House Of The Dragon is how centered it is on the question of succession and, ironically, how it deals more with the ‘game of thrones’ than Game Of Thrones.

While Game Of Thrones was filled with prophecies, magic and an existential threat from beyond the Wall, House Of The Dragon is a more human, down-to-earth drama about the rifts that grow between a family (and their closest allies and cousins).

When the show drifts into epic fantasy is also when it feels weakest. I’m speaking of the scene where King Viserys tells his daughter Rhaenyra about Aegon’s dream of a dark and terrible evil brewing in the North. This dream Aegon apparently called the Song of Ice and Fire and is the chief reason he conquered the Seven Kingdoms. Only united could these kingdoms stand against the great evil.

Which, um, turns out not to be the case in Game Of Thrones. Cersei never really unites with Jon and Daenerys to fight back the tide of undead and White Walkers. That whole thing was just mucked up so badly that drawing any attention to it at all seems like a mistake.

But beyond this, House Of The Dragon is blessedly bereft of epic fantasy tropes, focusing instead on very real, very human characters who find themselves in a story largely outside of their control. Even kings and princesses find themselves amidst the churn of tidal events and endless politics.

The Source Material Is Already Finished

Perhaps the biggest advantage that House Of The Dragon has over Game Of Thrones is one of simple logistics and pragmatism: The book Fire & Blood, upon which the story is based, is finished.

In fact, it’s just the second half of this ‘history of Westeros’ that deals with this specific story, a civil war known as the Dance of Dragons. While there is a sequel planned for Fire & Blood (yes, we all know how that goes with GRRM) the show doesn’t rely on that sequel for content. This particular arc, at least, is complete.

That means that showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnick don’t have to worry about finding themselves in the same position as Game Of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. That show took a quality nose-dive the moment the source material ran out (actually a bit before it ran out). At the very least, that won’t happen in House Of The Dragon.

There’s another difference that could be seen as an advantage or a disadvantage: Fire & Blood is written as a history, told from the perspective of a Maester who draws on often conflicting sources. This is a neat approach to storytelling, but not exactly easy to adapt. This means that the show’s creators will need to do a lot more filling in between the lines than they did in Game Of Thrones, where plenty of original dialogue was used from the books and we had the internal thoughts of myriad characters.

On the one hand, this gives the show’s writers more flexibility. On the other, it means they have a bit more work to make this come to life in a natural and organic way.

Either way, I’m excited to continue watching and reviewing this show here on my blog (follow me at the top of this page for all my reviews).

And since it’s already been renewed for Season 2, there’s lots more to look forward to. Lots more death and betrayal and misery, that is.

More ‘House Of The Dragon’ Posts From Yours Truly

Here are some of my articles on the show, though I will continue to write new content regularly.

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