House of the Dragon is so damned good. Now that I've stopped nitpicking things as much as I did when I was younger, I can fully appreciate just how far we've come in our entertainment options to actually have a fantasy series that looks as incredible as House of the Dragon. I mean...it looks better than movies with $200 million dollar budgets looked back around year 2000. And we get this weekly until season 2 ends for the price of a subscription to Max.
I've only seen two episodes in season 2 thus far, but both of them just hit the ground running. The first episode fed right into an assassination plot that was as gruesome as Game of Thrones could plaster on screen, and then this went into another assassination plot. Out of all of the new and returning characters, I think I dislike Otto Hightower the most. The civil war in House of the Dragon is entirely his own making because he assumes that the Realm won't accept a female heir to the throne. In my opinion, Rhaenyra would definitely have experienced a ton of sexism and low-level resistance to her rule, but that would have passed with time and reminders of the power of dragons.
Otto's weakness (which I will go into in just a minute) is also why I kind of despise him as a character. He's a fantastic political mind, but it's cold and calculating. When it came to his own daughter, he just pimped her out to the king so that she would be queen. However, the king was a decidedly gross individual and House of the Dragon never failed to remind us of how gross he was.
Otto always fails to understand the people who are close to him. Examples are ignoring the fact that Aegon is completely unsuited to rule. Another example happens after the assassination (done by Blood and Cheese) of Aegon's heir happens in the castle. Otto decides that displaying the dead body through town would garner a lot of sympathy, even though the two women he commands to ride on the wagon behind the funeral procession don't want to do it.
Anyway, the season is off to a strong start. Anyone else care to weigh in?
Is "Blood and Cheese" the name of a person? It sounds like a band.
ReplyDelete@P.T.: "Blood" and "Cheese" are the names of two assassins. I was kind of surprised that these names were so plain. But there you go. "Cheese" I think (without reading the books) is a nickname for a rat catcher in the Red Keep. "Blood" is the nickname of the other assassin because he is a brute warrior with no tactics or finesse. He's just a butcher.
DeleteI'm glad you're enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteThat's about as far as I've made it in the series. They are all deplorable characters but like a train wreck, it's fascinating to watch.
ReplyDeleteHappy IWSG Day, Michael! I need to watch this!
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