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Author Topic: House of the Dragon (no spoilers)  (Read 511 times)

Reckall

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House of the Dragon (no spoilers)
« on: August 22, 2022, 09:52:49 AM »
Having seen the preview of the first episode (in English) here are my first non-spoilerish impressions (I never read the book so I can't comment on that):

- The production values are very high (remember: an episode, here, costs half than one from The Rings of Power). I liked everything: sets, costumes, cinematography... Even the CG of the dragons is flawless (even if they do not appear a lot in the first episode).

- For sure it is a restart: you don't need to have seen GoT to enjoy this show. There are many easter eggs but of the kind that it is fun to find.

- Paddy Considine kills it as a king who is, at the same time, weak, intelligent enough to know that he is weak, and saddled with grief. I liked him more than Matt Smith, who plays, for now, a less interesting character. I guess that he will become more interesting later. He and Paddy, however, have a great scene together. Generally speaking I liked all the actors and how they manage to always convey more than what they say (or at least to make the viewer paranoid).

- Women are women in a medieval society. There is no grrrl power in sight - so both the previews and the trailers were misleading. When, we are told, the only legit heir was a woman, they found instead the most remote male heir available. She is known as "The Queen that Never Was" but she does seem the first to understand the reasoning behind this. True, we see women gain power, but in a logical way which immediately breeds trouble.

- Political intrigue galore. All characters except one have both "the interest of the King" in mind and their own. Only one does seem to be both wise and devoted to the King. Normally he won't survive minute 12 of episode 2 but there is also a reason as why maybe he will survive longer.

- Sex and violence are present but mostly implied. Violence is raw and brutal but you see less than you think. There is a throwaway sex scene (just enough to define the relationship between two characters) and an orgy is actually blurred in the background.

- The Tournament scene was a bit robbed from "The Last Duel" but maybe it's me. Also, let's say that the arena is very Freudian.

- The end titles feature a very good orchestration of the classic GoT theme. Worth a listen.

All in all a solid start and a nice return to Westeros. As usual, considering the dreck we see these days (and how GoT ended) the IMDB is already full of NINE OUT OF TEN! I'll give to this first episode 7.5/10. For sure I'm curious to see how the story will develop.
For every idiot who denounces Ayn Rand as "intellectualism" there is an excellent DM who creates a "Bioshock" adventure.