Review of the first episode of House of the Dragon, season 2

The beginning of the second season of House of the Dragon is plunged into a civil war that splits Westeros into two hateful camps: those who serve Queen Rhaenerya Targaryen and those who serve Queen Alicent Gauntower. Former best friends, one of whom married the other’s father-king and gave birth to sons, drown the Seven Kingdoms in blood and burn them in dragon flames just to put their own child on the notorious Iron Throne. Fans of George Martin’s work can already watch the first episode of the series “House of the Dragon”, it is available, among other things, on the Ukrainian streaming service Megogo. We’re going to look back at the first season and consider the events that begin to unfold in the second.

House of the Dragon is the only Game of Thrones spin-off so far that has managed to be realized and reach the audience. After the first season, it was obvious that the prequel about the history of the House of Targaryen, who ruled for a long time with the help of dragons but eventually lost power (the “worst” and most stable feature of any power is that sooner or later it is lost), is not as exciting and provocative as Game of Thrones, but nevertheless it quite adequately takes over the baton and convincingly returns fans to the same setting and the same mood, where a very dark adult fairy tale intersects with real history and real politics; where the struggle for spheres of influence and this or that affiliation to the throne is the only end result of friendship, sex, love, blood and incestuous ties.

If the first season focused exclusively on the Targaryen family and therefore looked more limited, almost chamber-like, narrower against the background of the original series, the second season noticeably and immediately from the very first scene of the first episode expands the setting and becomes even more like the main show. For example, the Starks, the lords of the North and masters of the House of the Wolf, appear in the frame for the first time. Moreover, when Rhaenerya’s son arrives at the Starks’ house to ask for support and an army, the young head of the House replies that he is loyal to Rhaenerya and will send soldiers, but only those who have already served on the Wall in the Night’s Watch, because protecting the northern border from external threats is his first duty, and “winter is coming.”

It is interesting that when the young green boy is surprised and perhaps even offended that Stark is concerned with the “childish” threat of savages and frost, when a real adult war is brewing in the kingdom, the master of the North answers mysteriously and disturbingly: “Do you think that my ancestor would have built this high ice wall, over which even dragons do not risk flying, fearing only a handful of wild nomads and the cold?” Of course, this doesn’t mean that House of the Dragon will also show white walkers and zombie invasions (why do we need them again?), but the hint of the walking dead is clear, which is no coincidence and creates additional poetry around the tale of Westeros, which will first be washed in blood in the civil war and then covered in white nightmare in the war with the ice ghosts.

That is, poetry about red and white. No, not wine (because, unfortunately, there is no wine-loving Tyrion Lannister in the charming performance of Peter Dinklage). Like Game of Thrones, the prequel also refers to the history of the Middle Ages and, in particular, paraphrases the War of the Red and White Roses, when in England in the second half of the fifteenth century there was a military conflict between the noble families of Lancaster and York, which eventually led to the coronation of the Tudor dynasty. As you know, the white and red roses were symbols of warring families, and the blonde pale Reynira and the dark-haired porcelain Alicent really look like white and red roses, like Snow White and Rose from the Grimm fairy tale. And we can say that the conflict between the Targaryens and the Gaithers eventually led to the crowning of the Baratheons.

“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” states the thalion (the principle of the customary law of ancient peoples regarding equal retribution). The authors of the series quote this ancient law literally, and instead of Homer’s apple of discord that destroyed Troy, here the root cause of the war (or the primary cause) is another round object – an ordinary human eye. Alicent’s half-blind son takes the whole life of Reynira’s son instead of an equivalent eye. So the first episode of the second season is called “Son for Son”. It seems that the plot is driving itself into a noose: In an endless chain of mutual post-revenge, when each of the avengers wants to be the one to take revenge (another son for his son, another son for another son, daughter for her son, daughter for her daughter…), and the vendetta turns into a mutual total annihilation to the final point, after which there will be absolutely nothing left on either side… I wonder if the authors will have enough ingenuity to intervene and break the senseless circle with a cool equilibrium twist.