House of the Dragon has doubled down on some of the most popular things about Game of Thrones–the Targaryens, dragons, and epic battles. Meanwhile, it’s fixed some of the original show’s most notorious issues, responding to common criticisms like the series’ depiction of women, violence and diversity. And while critics may have expected these corrections to result in a more stale or boring show, arguably they’ve helped to make House of the Dragon’s entertainment value sharper–and better. So how House of the Dragon fixed parts of what went wrong on Game of Thrones—and where does it still needs to catch up?
Transcript
It’s time to ask: how does House of the Dragon stack up against the original Game of Thrones? House of the Dragon has been a huge ratings success for HBO, but it’s also improved on the original series creatively. House of the Dragon has doubled down on some of the most popular things about Game of Thrones – the Targaryens, dragons, and epic battles. Meanwhile, it’s fixed some of the original show’s most notorious issues, responding to common criticisms like the series’ depiction of women, violence and diversity. And while critics may have expected these corrections to result in a more stale or boring show, arguably they’ve helped to make House of the Dragon’s entertainment value sharper–and better. Here’s how House of the Dragon has fixed parts of what went wrong on Game of Thrones—and where it still needs to catch up.
A Female Perspective of Westeros
Female characters in Game of Thrones were often subjected to gratuitous violence and sexual assualt. Depicting these attacks wasn’t inherently a problem – as Game of Thrones’ defenders pointed out, the show was drawing on true historical treatment of women. But the series was heavily criticized because these assault scenes often didn’t do enough to center the woman’s experience of the events. They might be framed from the perspective of a male observer or even a perpetrator, while dealing little with how the woman felt during or afterwards.
House of the Dragon responds to this criticism head-on—but not by removing any violence against women. If anything, House of the Dragon might be even more vivid in highlighting female suffering. But it’s putting a lot more emphasis on the perspective of the female – and instead of focusing as much on assault, House of the Dragon underlines the harsh, brutal nature of childbirth. In the first episode, when King Viserys’ wife Aemma experiences complications during labor, Viserys decides to order a C-section to sacrifice the mother and try to save the baby. The scene where Aemma realizes he’s ordered her death–but he won’t quite admit it–is incredibly difficult to watch. It’s made clear that Viserys does love his wife, but that he ultimately sees her as a vehicle for producing a male heir: Viserys is framed from Aemma’s point of view, partially obscured, staring down at her like a monster hiding in a closet. In the series that follows, the specter of Aemma’s death haunts all of the shows’ female characters. Even this world’s noblest women are trapped by expectations that they’ll eventually settle down and have several children, knowing full well that giving birth is just as risky as going to war.
Aemma Arryn: “We have royal wombs, you and I. The child bed is our battlefield.”
- House of the Dragon: Season 1, Episode 1
Laena Valyrion makes this connection even more explicit when (in a change from the sourcebook) she refuses her impending death in childbirth, and insists on a dragon rider’s death, asking her dragon to kill her before the labor does.
Perhaps the biggest way that this show treats its women better is by directly engaging with nuanced questions of gender in the writing. In fact, House of the Dragon is broadly about the nature of being a woman in power in Westeros. When Aemma and her newborn son die, Viserys decides to name Rhaenyra as his heir, which creates an uproar in Westerosi society. People won’t accept a future queen, so this automatically sets up conflict, first between Rhaenyra and her uncle Daemon, and later between Rhaenyra and her younger half-brother, Aegon. Most dramatically, the show explores the central split between Rhaenyra and the childhood friend who marries her father, Lady Alicent, as Rhaenyra follows her own instincts while Alicent always places duty, appearance and self-restraint first. Eventually it’s as if these two approaches or paths a woman in this society can take are at war, through Rhaenyra’s and Alicent’s respective lines. And while Rhaenyra’s fiery impulse to challenge the ways things are is appealing, those hardened by this world–from Viserys’ passed-over cousin Rhaenys to the self-interested Hand of the King Ser Otto Hightower–also argue convincingly for the pragmatist merits of accepting the status quo. Even if things can end poorly for the show’s women, the series is more interested in exploring why people are so opposed to the idea of women holding power, rather than merely punishing them for wanting to wield it. Game of Thrones presented social biases against women as matter-of-fact and even natural, but House of the Dragon follows women engaging with those biases, and trying to understand them.
Otto Hightower: “War will follow, do you understand? The realm will not accept her. And to secure her claim, she’ll have to put your children to the sword. She’ll have no choice.”
House of the Dragon: Season 1, Episode 5
Meanwhile, House of the Dragon is also more interested in considering women’s experience of sex. When Daemon takes Rhaenyra to a brothel, the scene focuses on her awakening, which sets off the way she’ll continue to pursue pleasure throughout her life. This scene is set in sharp contrast to Alicent, who stares off into the distance while she “does her duty” producing heirs for King Viserys. It’s easy to imagine a version of the brothel scene in the original Game of Thrones that solely depicts women being mistreated and exploited in a shock-value way, but House of the Dragon is able to complicate things by portraying a spectrum of female desire, suffering and ambivalence. Within its world of brothels, it gives three-dimensionality to the character of Mysaria, who has built a life for herself in the seedier parts of King’s Landing. Though Daemon claims that Mysaria is pregnant, she has in fact strategically ensured that there’s no way she can ever suffer the fate of the noblewomen we’ve seen.
Mysaria: “I ensured long ago that I would never be threatened by childbirth.”
- House of the Dragon: Season 1, Episode 2
Making Us Feel the Pain of Violence
The brutality of Game of Thrones was often presented matter-of-factly, for its own sake, to shock and titillate the audience. In House of the Dragon, we still get the spectacle of violence, but it’s also framed from the perspective of the people who are suffering. An early scene of noble people watching a joust emphasizes some of the audience’s discomfort to the gruesomeness. Even the goriness in other areas is, in part, designed to showcase the characters’ reactions to pain and suffering—especially in the slow decay of Viserys, whose infections provide some of the most disturbing visuals on either series without ever showing a sword.
Not Shying Away from the Taboo
Then there’s the topic central to the Targaryen dynasty that’s always been a little danced around onscreen: incest. Game of Thrones solely explored the infamous Westerosi practice through the forbidden relationship of Jaime and Cersei Lannister– which is considered a shameful secret in their time (and colored for viewers by the fact that this brother and sister are introduced as villainous). Incest also later becomes an issue when lovers Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen learn they’re aunt and nephew. And while Dany — raised as a Targaryen – doesn’t seem that fazed by the relation besides the fact that Jon has a claim to the Iron Throne, Jon – who was raised in House Stark –quickly cools in his feelings.
Jon Snow: “I want it to be the way it was between us.”
Game of Thrones: Season 8, Episode 4
But House of the Dragon looks in a more matter-of-fact way at how social and political expectations might force members of the Targaryen family to marry each other. In this world, no other match could be as formidable in storing up one’s power as a fellow Dragon. Even outside of the Targaryens, the Valeryon house is frequently posited as one of their best potential marriage partners – both because of their significant power and because the houses share ancient Valyrian blood. So the extended family that emerges at the center of this feud is a confusing mess of intermarried uncles and nieces, cousins or cousins removed, and siblings and stepsiblings. There are also emotional reasons why Targaryens intermarry during this period: they feel loneliness as they orbit around the throne—something House of the Dragon explores with more nuance than the original Thrones. When Rhaenyra and Daemon decide to get married, it’s both because they’re drawn to each other and because the union will strengthen their claims to the Iron Throne.
Rhaenyra Targaryen: “Let us bind our blood/With you as my husband and prince consort, my claim would not be so easily challenged.”
- House of the Dragon: Season 1, Episode 7
Making a More Diverse Westeros
House of the Dragon also attempts to fix Game of Thrones much-noted diversity problem – mainly by casting black actors as the members of House Velaryon. Whereas Game of Thrones’ most prominent black actors played slaves or former slaves here the Velaryon house is a powerful and a central part of the political landscape; it offers ongoing family drama through how its heirs interact with the Targaryen ones in the younger generations. The show also deals with how Laenor Velaryon must keep his homosexuality a secret in this world to try to do his “duty” of producing noble heirs for his family but rather than this just being a depressing or brutal plot that turns him into another sidelined victim. The fall-out of his unconventional marriage arrangement with Rhaenyra eventually leads to season’s most dramatic twists.
A Sharper Blade and New Approach to Time
The original Game of Thrones can actually be a slow show. A journey from Winterfell to King’s Landing can take an entire season. This worked because Game of Thrones also had a broader scope, combining many side stories and characters who could show up unexpectedly and disappear for seasons. But House of the Dragon has identified what people liked most about the original show and boiled it down to a highly concentrated form: It has more of everything, which is possible precisely because the episodes tend to skip forward in time.
House of the Dragon is unafraid to clip along: sometimes three years will pass between episodes, sometimes six, sometimes even ten. Things feel chaotic and precarious because House of the Dragon can effortlessly move focus from one generation to the next, and then to the one after that. And in part thanks to this fast movement through time, the show (like Game of Thrones in its best seasons) isn’t precious about killing off characters. There’s a brutality to the treatment of the characters that reflects the brutality of the world.
Alicent Hightower “There is a debt to be paid. I shall have one of her son’s eyes in return.”
- House of the Dragon: Season 1, Episode 7
Game of Thrones was telling a bigger story about the squabbling of Westeros leading it to ignore the dual threats of Daenerys and the White Walkers–so it was, by design, not about any of the individual characters or houses. House of the Dragon is a family drama, one that is ultimately about Rhaenyra, Daemon, and Alicent. And the series uses those characters to explore types of relationship dynamics that didn’t quite land in the original series. At first, Rhaenyra’s relationship with Ser Criston seems like a remix of Jon’s relationship with Dany,
But whereas Jon’s and Dany’s relationship crumbles in poorly conveyed subtext before he murders her in an ending where he’s positioned as “right” and she as “wrong,” House of the Dragon more intelligently explores the inherent mismatch in Rhaenyra’s and Criston’s relationship, both because of their clashing outlooks and because of Rhaenyra’s power over her Kingsguard. Rhaenyra dominates the naive, duty-bound Ser Criston, coercing him to break his vow of chastity while he develops a mistaken impression of their potential future. So the show demonstrates how that kind of treatment (and mismatching values) might realistically push someone toward bitterness but it doesn’t necessarily side with either character as fully right or admirable.
as House of the Dragon follows Rhaenyra, Allicent, Daemon, and others try to secure stronger positions, it’s soapy, witty, and fun. It’s also tragic–in moments like the dinner party just before Viserys’ death, we see that love and the will to reconcile are there, under the surface, but are so incredibly fragile that a few explosive words or a genuine misunderstanding can destroy that opportunity for peace.
Viserys Targaryen: “Set aside your grievances. If not for the crown then for this old man”
- House of the Dragon: Season 1, Episode 8
Where House of the Dragon Still Needs to Spread its Wings
Still, it’s too early to say that House of the Dragon is a total improvement over Game of Thrones–which, before the notoriety of its final seasons, had a lot going for it during its peak. House of the Dragon’s more focused nature works better for now, but that also means it lacks the epic, interconnected sweep that helped make Game of Thrones so successful, and it can’t keep relying on skipping forward in time indefinitely. There have been fun, engaging battle sequences in House of the Dragon, but nothing so far that rivals the sweep and power of the Battle of the Bastards, Hardhome, or the Battle of Winterfell. We’ll have to see if it can summon the drastic surprises of events like The Red Wedding, Ned Stark’s beheading, or The Mountain and the Viper.
Conclusion
It’s still early in House of the Dragon, and it might be impossible to say whether it’s “better” than Game of Thrones. But House of the Dragon follows the similarly successful Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul in being more focused, learning from past mistakes, and showing more confidence in depicting exactly what it wants to. At the very least, the series has managed to prove that it is possible to respond to criticism about representation and story focus, while retaining everything fans liked in the first place, and even improving on the entertainment value. It’s proof that evolving and listening to smart critiques can result in a story that’s more insightful and fun, for everyone.