At the end of Game of Thrones, King’s Landing was in burnt and ashy ruins, much like the show’s legacy. For nearly a decade, fans had invested in the HBO fantasy series. Only the investment did not deliver the enormous profits to which they had become accustomed. Quality tends to deteriorate over the seasons of any TV show, even epic-scaled TV phenomena.

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Game of Thrones, on the other hand, has taken an extraordinary freefall and landed with a thud, leaving a bitter taste. For good reason, excitement has been tempered with skepticism with each IP extension HBO has announced. The first of these IP extensions, House of the Dragon, arrived on Monday, operating almost as if it had been instructed to joust with one hand tied behind its back.

Set two centuries before Daenerys Targaryen decided to burn it all down, the new series transports us to a period when her ancestors waged their own game of thrones, nearly wiping out their whole bloodline and their dragons in the process. Because the focus here is on the Targaryen family’s power battles, expect lots of silver-blonde wigs, incestuous relationships, and first names whose spellings the writer and editor must double-check.

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If these markers don’t transport you back to Westeros, Ramin Djawadi’s textured strings will cast a spell on you with their swirling intrigue. House of the Dragon treads familiar ground: plotting, backstabbing, jousting, and orgy-ing all play a role as pretenders strive for the sovereignty of Westeros’ Seven Kingdoms. Westeros continues to be valuable real estate.

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Game of Thrones has merely scraped the surface, and there is still plenty more premium to be mined. What happens in the first season (at least the six episodes made accessible to critics) will set the setting for a civil war dubbed the “Dance of the Dragons” by George RR Martin in his 2018 novel Fire and Blood.

Martin, who has been credited as co-creator alongside Ryan J Condal, undoubtedly has a multi-season story in mind. The most difficult issue will be not just to submerge what made Game of Thrones so damn enjoyable at its pinnacle, but also to justify the show’s continued existence on its own terms.

So far, the fundamental distinction is that House of the Dragon plays like a more focused drama while maintaining the sense of an epic unfolding. Throughout six and a half years, Game of Thrones followed various “noble” families and their inner circles across the continents of Westeros and Essos. House of the Dragon is the polar opposite of Game of Thrones in terms of geographical scope and chronological economy. For the most part, the latter’s tale is confined to the rule and succession of a few Targaryens in King’s Landing, with the first season making time leaps to cover several decades in their existence.

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As a result, the show rushes across some great dramatic territory. However, this hurried approach gives characterizations and difficulties a hurried ungainliness. As we move from one council meeting to the next, you long for Tyrion to make a scathing remark while pouring another chalice of wine, the puppeteering of Varys and Littlefinger, or Cersei’s delectable cleverness to break the boredom. Unfortunately, there is no such individual in this story. The writing, though, lacks the sharpness to make all the politicking shine. The parallels are too obvious. Rats are frequently used to suggest moral decay. “Childbirth is our battlefield,” a woman tells her daughter after a terrifying C-section is interrupted by a jousting tournament.

House of the Dragon, directed by Game of Thrones alum Miguel Sapochnick, gets right into its stride in the first hour. Since Aegon the Conqueror united the realm, the Targaryen dynasty has governed unopposed. It’s difficult to challenge them when they have the ultimate deterrent in the form of dragons. The swords that comprise the Iron Throne prove their power even after centuries of dominance.

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The present incumbent King Viserys (Paddy Considine), who is a bit of a pushover, sets the stage for their demise. His rotting flesh from the inside foreshadows the fate of the Targaryen dynasty. Viserys, who has no son, has two choices for selecting a successor: his fiery younger brother Daemon (Matt Smith) or his feisty firstborn daughter Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock).

Each has admirers and detractors. However, the preceding heirs have all been men. Viserys succeeded his grandfather, Jaehaerys, after cousin Rhaenys (Eve Best) was thought insufficiently feminine to rule the Seven Kingdoms. Rhaenys must now bear the condescending epithet “the Queen who never was.” Rhaenyra must thus overcome centuries-old patriarchal conventions if she is to become Westeros’ first queen. And she is determined to succeed. Her entrance as she rides a dragon into King’s Landing in a breathtaking overhead image, as if she were riding a gearless two-wheeler, heralds her badassery.

The connection between Rhaenyra and Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey), the daughter of Viserys’ Hand, Ser Otto, is essential to the plot (Rhys Ifans). When we first meet the two as teenagers in the season premiere, they are the best of friends, having grown up in King’s Landing together. After Viserys marries Alicent after the death of his first wife and Rhaenyra’s mother, Aemma Arryn, their friendship begins to deteriorate (Sian Brooke). House of the Dragon explores what it means to be a woman in a misogynistic environment like Westeros through Rhaenyra and Alicent.

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If Rhaenyra dislikes Alicent, it’s because her greatest friend has become her stepmother. But Alicent isn’t choosing to marry Viserys. Her father orders her to go to the widowed King’s apartments and bring him “comfort.” Her nervousness and reluctance are visible in her fidgety fingers. With each episode, the fissures in their friendship grow wider, paving the path for the “Dance of the Dragons.” However, both feel like pieces on a chess board being set up for something grander to come, with insufficient scenes to establish their opposing goals.

When power is at stake, friendship, family, and almost every other tie become frail. Power may either make Targaryens great or drive them insane. “Every youngster understands that the Targaryens have always flirted dangerously close to insanity.” In A Storm of Swords, Ser Barristan Selmy informs Dany. “Madness and grandeur are opposites.” Every time a new Targaryen is born, the gods toss a coin into the air, and the world waits to see where it lands,” he explained.

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The high-caliber cast alone distinguishes House of the Dragon as a worthwhile series. Considine plays Viserys, a more pitiful King Lear-type figure who struggles with the dilemma of who among his Council members has his family’s best interests at heart.

Because of the significant time difference between the fifth and sixth episodes, Alcock and Carey are replaced by Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke, respectively. However, the transition is not ideal. There is much contradiction, particularly in Alicent’s emotional continuity. Smith’s Daemon is not as evil as Joffrey, but he is as unpredictable as Martin’s antagonists become.

Daemon enlists the Men of the Watch in one scene of blood-soaked cruelty to round up and dismember all the criminals, from petty thieves to rapists, who live in the crime-ridden dumpster fire that is King’s Landing. Sonoya Mizuno, who plays his foreign mistress Mysaria, makes some perplexing decisions with thick accent work to support a barely drawn character. Because of the existence of the rich House Velaryon led by Lord Corlys, House of Dragons is significantly less white than Game of Thrones (Steve Toussaint). Of course, the show never considers how his ethnicity or marriage to Rhaenys may have been seen in Westeros’ racist environment.

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As one might anticipate, Game of Thrones mythology pervades the House of the Dragon. We come across another Lannister who is full of himself. The names Starks and Baratheons are mentioned. These references do not overrun the series, so that fan service does not become a crutch. If the showrunners have any doubts about how to pull off a terrific prequel, they only need to look to the recently finished Better Call Saul. In the end, the success of House of the Dragon will be determined not by how it employs well-known touchstones, but by its ability to tell a story distinct from its predecessor.