The 5 Biggest Problems With ‘House Of The Dragon’

HBO’s new Game Of Thrones spinoff, House Of The Dragon, will invariably be compared to the original show by hardcore and casual fans, by critics and skeptics and influencers. The question is whether that comparison will be favorable or otherwise.

I’ve already penned a spoiler-free review of the first six episodes (I’ve seen screeners for six of the ten episode series, though some of the visual effects were not in place especially in Episode 6).

But since I’ve written that initial review, I’ve pondered the show more and I’d like to distill some of my concerns with the prequel series into a list. A list of easily digestible problems.

#1 — It’s Hard To Care About The Characters, Or Their Fates

The story of House of the Dragon is one of succession rather than an epic battle between the forces of good and evil (and everything in-between). Most of the show’s drama is court intrigue and political skullduggery rather than battlefield glory, and most of the intrigue takes place within the confines of the Red Keep and the Targaryens and their hangers-on.

Sure, there are other noble Houses present. One of the chief schemers is Otto Hightower, Hand of the King. His daughter, Alicent, becomes one of the most important characters in the entire show largely thanks to his plotting. But at the heart of all the plotting is King Viserys and his crown and the Targaryens (and Velaryons) who stand to inherit all that power.

But the mopey Daemon who, at times, seems like the kind of brash knave and warrior who we might come to root for in a demented sort of way, largely does nothing over the years. Rhaenyra, the female heir apparent, is really the only character we find ourselves really hoping will succeed, but the actor who portrays her in the first five episodes is replaced after a major time-jump.

Other “good guys” like Lord Strong of Harrenhal, are short-changed character development. Strong, who eventually becomes Hand, is a character who might have gotten a whole fleshed-out life had he been in Game Of Thrones, but here he’s just one face among many. The fate of these characters should weigh on us, but it doesn’t. Not yet anyways.

#2 — The Time-Jumps Are Jarring In More Ways Than One

I understand that there need to be time-jumps in this story. While Game Of Thrones takes place in a very condensed time-frame, Dragon is a sprawling tale of dynastic succession that invariably unfolds over generations.

But it does wreak havoc on the pacing, which can feel at once shockingly abrupt and terribly slow all at the same time. When, after the fifth episode, several key actors are replaced with older versions of themselves, it’s beyond jarring.

This is especially true of Rhaenyra. Milly Alcock plays her brilliantly in the first five episodes and while her replacement, Emma D’Arcy, does a fine job in the sixth, it still feels like we’ve not just replaced actors, but characters in the process.

I’m not sure what the solution here would have been. The show spans close to fifteen years (or so) from the first episode to the sixth and it would have been goofy to use makeup and prosthetics to make the younger actors look older, and de-aging older actors for five hour-long episodes is even more unrealistic.

Perhaps interweaving timelines would have helped (think Yellowjackets which has both older and younger actors play many of the characters across two distinct timelines). Perhaps it’s just something we have to accept. Whatever the case, it ends up feeling quite different from its predecessor and not always in a good way.

#3 — The Dragons Are . . . Fine?

One selling point for House of the Dragon has been the dragons themselves. I have to say, I’m a little disappointed by the lack of actual dragon content in the show. Yes, we have some fire-breathing battle scenes. We see Daemon and Rhaenyra flying about awkwardly atop their beasts. We see a young dragon being trained and watch as dragons fly above ships at sea, or around the spires of the Red Keep.

But quantity is not always quality. And I’m not talking about the CGI. The screeners I watched had ‘work in progress’ CGI and it still looked great (except for Episode 6 which had entire segments unfinished with title cards and sound effects only).

No, it’s more about how we feel about these dragons, or how we don’t feel. I thought we’d spend at least a little time with the dragon riders bonding with their dragons, but if you want that you should go watch How To Train Your Dragon instead. Neither Daemon nor Rhaenyra seems to care much about their dragons at all. Only the Targaryen children whose dragon eggs don’t hatch at all seem to feel much of anything.

At least Game Of Thrones gave Daenerys quality time with her little beasties, even if ultimately that show dropped the dragon ball hard. Here, it feels like wasted potential not just for the big action set pieces, but for our characters themselves.

Think of it like this: Movies and TV often make us care about pets even more than their owners. I won’t spoil John Wick for you if you haven’t seen that, but that movie was able to make us care a lot about a puppy. The dragons of House of the Dragon have no personality and very little connection to their riders.

#4 — It’s Edgy Just To Be Edgy Sometimes

One of the things I found myself complaining about when I was reviewing Game Of Thrones were those moments that just felt like the show’s creators were trying too hard to be edgy or transgressive, like they were aiming for shock value (think Joffrey and his crossbow) rather than valuable shock (like Ned losing his head).

Well here we go again. There are some very dark, very effective scenes in House of the Dragon, including one heart-breaking, gut-wrenching childbirth scene that may be the series’ most powerful. But there’s plenty of gratuitous T&A and crunchy violence that is plenty shocking but also often feels unearned and unnecessary.

One particularly brutal scene (at a wedding, no less) was shocking mainly because it felt so out of the blue. I still don’t really understand the character’s motivations for enacting such brutality out upon another, or why he faced no consequences whatsoever for his actions after the fact.

#5 — Consequences Don’t Matter

This brings us to the final problem I have with this show. As I mentioned in the above point, during a high-profile wedding one man kills another on the feast floor in a fit of rage. The rage itself struck me as out of leftfield. The character who commits the act basically has to undergo a rapid, unearned personality shift (that is then doubled-down on after this act of violence). But this man’s reaction is so unhinged and his violence so brutal, it’s mostly shocking that he isn’t hung from a noose in the next scene. The powerful family whose ally was killed in this scene barely seems to bat an eye. No revenge is taken, no consequences. It’s . . . well frankly it’s bizarre.

And that’s the thing about House of the Dragon. It’s not even that actions have no consequences, it’s that the stakes always feel so low. One character murders his wife in cold blood, but we had exactly 45 seconds to get to know the woman before her death, so it’s not like we really had any emotional investment in her.

Viserys and his brother Daemon’s relationship is tumultuous at best, but Daemon is always welcomed back with open arms—and then sent away again as quickly as he came. There’s no arc here between these brothers, just narrative ping-pong. Here’s Daemon again! Oh, never mind, he’s being kicked out again. But he’ll be back! But then he’ll get kicked out again.

The brilliant thing about Game of Thrones was the weight of every action and choice and the consequences that followed. Think about it: Catelyn arresting Tyrion on the King’s Road created a domino effect that eventually led to the death of Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark, which in turn led to Arya making a daring escape from the city and Sansa finding herself imprisoned. When Jaime Lannister was captured on the battlefield by Robb, Catelyn then freed him in order to secure Sansa’s release, leading to even more unintended consequences. (Even Sansa’s imprisonment had consequences!)

Maybe we will see these long-game type cause-and-effect repercussions play out later in the season, but as it stands it feels like every conflict save the big one (who will take the Iron Throne when Viserys dies) is resolved very quickly and often somewhat jarringly, or brushed off to the side. The war against the Triarchy happens along the periphery of the actual story, and so even the monumental questions of state and of war seem almost like afterthoughts here.

I focus here on the negatives, and I do so because I really did have my hopes up for this show and it’s fallen short of some of my expectations. I was expecting the court intrigue and the slower pace and fewer battles and so forth; I just wasn’t expecting it to be quite so inert.

On the other hand, it’s still a really compelling fantasy drama for lots of reasons. The costume design, the score, the special effects and certainly the acting are all top-notch, and even though the story is a bit of a slog and most of the characters are dreary and unlikable, I’m still invested in what happens. The Targaryen dynasty is facing its first post-conquest test of resolve, and things are hurtling toward civil war, which ought to make the show somewhat more engrossing.

I’ll be reviewing each episode as they come out (with recaps and therefor spoilers) and it’s possible that on second viewing I’ll come to enjoy these stories more. Untangling the nuances and details of these complex characters will be fun regardless.

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