In ‘The house of the dragon’, the game of thrones stays in the family

It is surprising that only a little over three years have passed since The end of Game of Thrones and not a century, as it seems. The world in 2019 was different. Similar, but different. Therefore, it is not strange that today we return to a similar, but different King’s Landing. Game of Thrones it was a superlative series: the most seen, the most expensive, the most spectacular, the most loved until it almost became the most hated. The one that had changed television and after which nothing would be the same. So it was. But television changes so fast that three years is a century. Or two, which are the ones that travel back in time its sequel, dragon house, whose first chapter is already available on HBO Max.

Fortunately or unfortunately for her, the house of the dragon born under the wing of Game of Thrones. She does not hide it, on the contrary, she shows it off. On the one hand, it is life insurance: the eyes of half the world are on it for its mere existence, without the need for additional merits. On the other, it is a handicap: the comparison will be inevitable, constant and even necessary. Nor can a certain vibrant emotion be avoided in the faithful viewer of Game of Thrones upon detecting in the soundtrack, again composed by the German-Iranian musician ramin jawadithe characteristic notes of the mother series.

HBO had (and still has on the table) several options to continue browsing that universe. For this first incursion, he opted for the most continuous, the one that looked at the past of one of the main families of that legendary struggle for the throne, the Targaryens, a dynasty of dragon riders where inbreeding and incest were customary and whose history writes George R. R. Martin in the book fire and blood. The key, as explained by those responsible and confirmed in the first episodes -the first three have been seen for this review-, was to recognize Game of Thrones. We want more of the same, but slightly different, should have been the slogan.

The story begins by placing the viewer about 200 years before Game of Thrones. Barely three minutes have passed when the first dragon makes an appearance in an episode that unfolds its cards, putting on the table all the ingredients that characterized the most awarded series in television history: wild violence, sex, dragons, political intrigues , dramatic deaths, battles (medieval duels in the first chapter; we will only have to wait for the third to find the first battle itself) and ambitious and charismatic characters.

What used to be a fight between reigning houses, is now limited to a family war where the spark that ignites everything still needs to jump. The vast universe of Game of Thrones it is now reduced to little more than the rooms of the palace. Because Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnick, the heads of the series, the first in charge of the script and the second in directing, have chosen to return to the Game of Thrones from the first seasons the one in which palace intrigues, politics and dialogues between characters were the basis of the plot, above the epic. And the plot becomes easier to follow by reducing it to a story, a family, and a handful of characters, not those walks from one side of Westeros to the other with so many open stories and so many characters involved that sometimes an outline was needed to do not get lost. Luckily they were dying.

On the one hand, we now find King Viserys, with a reputation as a good man (despite some more than questionable decisions), pushed by the Privy Council to choose a successor to the throne. His daughter, Princess Rhaenyra, would be the clear choice if it weren’t for the tradition that women cannot rule. Another possibility is his little brother, Prince Daemon, an unpredictable, warrior, violent, dangerous and charismatic man who openly postulates himself but whom Viserys does not see prepared to wear the crown. Surrounding them is the Hand of the King, Otto Hightower, maneuvering his daughter Alicent, a friend of the princess, to the king. And also the princess Rhaenys (not to be confused with Rhaenyra, eye), cousin of the king and who really should have reigned if he had not been a woman, now married to Lord Corlys Velaryon, the sea serpent, of Valyrian lineage, possessor of large amounts of gold and the most powerful army in Westeros, the perfect ally and a feared enemy. With them and little else, a plot is composed in which the characters will maneuver to try to secure the Iron Throne with alliances and enmities, betrayals and rapprochements.

Already in this first chapter, the story focuses on the machismo of a patriarchal and misogynistic society that does not let women reign, an issue that was also discussed in Game of Thrones but that now takes on more relevance and a new focus. The plot acquires a feminine point of view, which can also be seen in a treatment of the sex different from that presented Game of Thrones. The explanation is simple: unlike Game of Thrones, behind the writing of the house of the dragon there is a writers room where women are represented in the same way as men. And, surprise, it shows.

For the characters to be sustained, a good choice of cast is essential, a point that in this case seems to have been achieved. Paddy Considine conveys the sorrow, doubts, and internal struggle that plague King Viserys. Matt Smith gives Prince Daemon the arrogance of a spoiled child and the point of madness that is understood in the Targaryens. But who conquers the first bars of the series is Milly Alcock, the young princess Rhaenyra, who struggles internally to accept her role in this society while she rebels against him. The character in adulthood will be played by Emma D’Arcy.

In its initial stages, the house of the dragon has built a universe more limited than that of Game of Thrones in many respects, with no room for comic relief, not even a single smile. His writers seem to have taken good note of recent prestigious family dramas like Succession either The Crown (or even period dramas like The Tudors) to try to transfer those intimate quarrels, those intramural intrigues, to a world with dragons. We will have to wait for the next seasons (no one doubts that there will be; the smack should be monumental so that there would not be) to see if that spark that is still missing arises, becomes a flame and the history of the Targaryens ends up catching . Either Game of Thrones It was the series we remember from its beginning. But the house of the dragon has the challenge of dealing with a much less patient viewer and a much more complex, competitive and competitive audiovisual landscape than that of a decade ago. Mind you, they don’t have dragons, and the Targaryens do.

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