As you may know, we’re saying goodbye (for now) to Dragon House last night with the end of season 1 “The black queen.” The intrigue-packed episode, which threw many tragedies at Rhaenyra, was a plot to consider, setting up what looks to be a very bloody season two. Now that we’ve had a moment to reflect, let’s take a look at how well it turned out, just like we did with our half time report on game of thrones prequelchiming in on what bothered us, what thrilled us, and any other lingering thoughts we have about the show.
What did you think of the Dragon House final season?
Saloni Gajjar: At the risk of being absolutely annoying: The book is always better. Fire & Blood has its issues, but at least it clarified the evil and ambitious motivations of its characters. Dragon House somehow failed in this regard. As much as I enjoyed revisiting Westeros and the political mind games that followed, I’m not sold on the intensity. Major plot points were turned into “accidental ones”, such as Alicent misunderstanding Viserys on his deathbed or, in the finale, Aemond battling Lucerys, the latter’s death only occurring due to a uncontrolled dragon. Other than Daemon and Otto – two men who were never going to get the throne to begin with – no one else has shown any real interest in possessing power. I’m all for changing the narrative for a TV adaptation, but HOT did not deserve these moments. The pace was either too fast or too slow.
The finale had the same issues. I appreciate that Rhaenyra has finally shown her interest in ruling beyond “it’s my duty” – she lost her father, her kingdom, her newborn and her second son in quick succession, so revenge is now its driving force. But the show suffered from not delving deeper into that. “The Black Queen” was a pretty thin season finale, and I know I’ll be seated for the next round when it comes around, but hopefully the writers dig deeper into the characters. Rhaenrya’s latest plan promises that, so we’ll see. I admit it: the photo of Vhagar cutting Arrax in half was cool as hell. Plus, Emma D’Arcy’s performance was worth the all time.
Sam Barsanti: game of thrones taught us that the one who deserves to be king is the person with the best story, and even if it was and continues to be completely stupid, I think Tyrion Lannister would really appreciate Westeros going to war now ( more than a century before he was born) with such clear lines between who has the right story and who has the wrong story. On one side we have Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen, first of the name, etc. etc., rightful heiress to the Iron Throne and the only one to know the prophecy that we all know will eventually (to some degree) come true. On the other, we have Alicent and her family of dumb assholes, who have upended all sense of honor and justice in Westeros because of a misunderstanding as dumb as anything that happened in the last episode. of game of thrones.
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What I’m saying is that half of Dragon House has a story that I love and invest myself in, because Rhaenyra is cool and because we will always defend the Eleventh Doctor in my house, and the other half of Dragon House has characters that don’t interest me and writing that I find stupid and contrived. So I love that this finale is all about ruling Rhaenyra in a way that only she can and I hope she’s able to quickly destroy any parts of the series that I don’t like – which , again, is Alicent and her stupid jerk family.
Tim Lowery: I’m sure I’m the trillionth person to say that, but doesn’t every episode of this show feel like a season of TV? As Jenna Scherer so aptly put it in her recap of the final, HOT wraps in so much intrigue in so little time. Now, that can be exciting, of course. That dragon hunt at the end of “The Black Queen,” like many of the endings of many episodes this season, was indeed a lot. Watching it, you realize there’s nothing like it on television. But (and to quote Pee-wee, that’s a big but) the show hasn’t sucked me in yet – and I think that has a lot to do with how many dramatic beats this show goes through in a single episode. When the characters eat it up dramatically, it’s hard to feel anything because (more often than not) we barely know them or their motivations. Plus, both well acted (and the show really is) and beautiful HOT is to watch, the finale was mostly guilty of having big drama scores and online deliverys for great dramatic moments, a movement that, as a viewer, I find gritty. So please, Dragon Houseslow down next time.
Drew Gillis: Looking back, I’m a bit embarrassed that I was caught off guard by Luke’s death at the end of the episode. As Jenna Scherer points out in her recap, the previous scene with Rhaenyra wishing her luck certainly telegraphed her. I was even sitting there thinking, “Wow, it looks like these characters have been getting a lot of plot armor lately!” Boy, was I glad I was wrong, and I never wanted to see the next episode of Dragon House more than me this morning.
If I have one gripe, it’s that I really can’t stand Aemond as a character. I get that he’s supposed to be hateful, but he’s one-dimensional at this point in a way that the other hateful characters Alicent and Daemon aren’t. He’s bloodthirsty because he lost his eye, but he lost his eye because he stole his dead aunt’s dragon and was generally, you know, a world-class asshole. The look on his face in his final scene of the episode, in which he accidentally kills his cousin when he just wanted to terrorize him and realizes he actually intervened, hints that we may be seeing something that looks like depth from him in season two. Here is the hope.
Cindy White: having read Fire & Blood, I knew what was going to happen at the end of this episode, and I was preparing for a blow. It didn’t quite hit the way I expected, though. If we had spent more time with Prince Lucerys and his dragon this season, I think it would have been devastating, but as exciting as that aerial dragon fight was, and as shocking as it was to watch Luke get gobbled up by Vhagar, I didn’t. I don’t have enough of an emotional connection to him to care that much. I felt for Rhaenyra, thanks to Emma D’Arcy’s moving performance and the realization that they basically froze two of her kids in one episode. It’s not something that came to mind when I read the book, so I can say that the series makes me think of these characters in a new way. Maybe next season they will convince me to care more about the next generation.
This lack of connection is emblematic of a problem Dragon House had all season. The many time jumps didn’t allow us to live long enough with the characters before catapulting us into the future, where we had to start all over again. Looking at Season 1 as a whole, I guess I can see now why they did it. It feels like they had that endpoint in mind from the start and worked backwards to get there by Episode 10. The pacing issues and narrow focus on a handful of locations and of characters (as opposed to the larger scope of game of thrones) boil down to a singular momentum towards the Civil War’s first major event – Aemond killing Luke. Things are picking up speed now, but I’m not sure it was worth sacrificing what we’ve lost over the past few years.
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