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The Heirs of the Dragon
Aug. 26th, 2022 06:45 pmSo, House of the Dragon.
[Spoilers and such]
I am just...a little bit obsessed with the Targaryens as essentially a people of diaspora.
The Houses Targaryen and Velaryon as the last survivors of a culture (and, honestly, a race) that has been lost to the wider world. But the Targs in particular, since House Velaryon has been in Westeros longer. The Targs who foresaw and fled the Doom of Valyria but who are constantly trying to go home. Building shrines to their dragons when they die, dragons they continue to name for gods and goddesses of Valyria that no one worships anymore including themselves as necessity called for them to convert to the Faith of the Seven to appease this land they've "conquered." They all speak the Common Tongue but studiously preserve their own mother tongue that almost no one else in Westeros speaks. Rhaenyra and Daemon in particular speaking to each other in High Valyrian like they're trying to rebuild the home between them that they can never return to.
The deep longing and sadness at the core of this family, conquering but never belonging, ruling but never resting. Forever outsiders, forever foreigners, forever just a little bit other. They are of no one and no place, always looking to the skies with a longing that aches, borne aloft on dragonback with wings that can take them anywhere except for home. And the tragedy that they cannot even find peace amongst themselves, and are doomed, like Valyria, to destroy themselves.
And all of that is so clear in House of the Dragon, and I'm absolutely living for it. This was always my favorite aspect of Daenerys' story in ASoIaF/GoT, what was always the most resonant for me. It just so happens as I write this that in my GoT rewatch I've started S5, which is the season with the most Sehnsucht re: Dany as a Targ, which is perhaps why I am pining so hard myself.
Anyway...
I've often said about Game of Thrones that you can have all the gorgeous sets and locations in the world, beautiful costume design, a (mostly) good cast, but none of it matters if the writing is bad. HotD proves that in spades, because the only functional difference between it and GoT is the quality of the writing. It's the same world, drawing from source material from the same author, with the same production value and resources at its disposal, but even just this first episode is miles better than its predecessor. And that's because, frankly, it has entirely different writing staff and showrunners.
Ryan Condal was the biggest unknown quantity to me going into the premiere, having seen none of his previous work, and he's the headwriter and showrunner, so I was RATHER ANXIOUS. But that anxiety seems to have been misplaced. The writing of this first episode is superb and better than anything GoT ever made me suffer through.
The opening sentence of the Fire & Blood chapter that this first episode is named for, The Heirs of the Dragon, is as follows: "The seeds of war are oft planted during times of peace." Which is a great way to describe the episode, to be honest. It does a beautiful job establishing the state of the world during the height of the Targaryen dynasty just before its self-inflicted decline and showing in loving detail exactly what is about to be lost. I still question the decision to begin with the Dance of the Dragons, which starts halfway through the first volume of Fire & Blood, rather than the Conquest which begins the dynasty. But if you are going to begin a story here, this is how to do it.
I just. I'm out of poetry. I've been working on this post off and on for days. So just know: I'm a tiny bit taken with this show. And relieved beyond measure. Maybe finally, finally, we're going to get an adaptation of this source material that isn't embarrassing to admit to liking.
[Spoilers and such]
I am just...a little bit obsessed with the Targaryens as essentially a people of diaspora.
The Houses Targaryen and Velaryon as the last survivors of a culture (and, honestly, a race) that has been lost to the wider world. But the Targs in particular, since House Velaryon has been in Westeros longer. The Targs who foresaw and fled the Doom of Valyria but who are constantly trying to go home. Building shrines to their dragons when they die, dragons they continue to name for gods and goddesses of Valyria that no one worships anymore including themselves as necessity called for them to convert to the Faith of the Seven to appease this land they've "conquered." They all speak the Common Tongue but studiously preserve their own mother tongue that almost no one else in Westeros speaks. Rhaenyra and Daemon in particular speaking to each other in High Valyrian like they're trying to rebuild the home between them that they can never return to.
The deep longing and sadness at the core of this family, conquering but never belonging, ruling but never resting. Forever outsiders, forever foreigners, forever just a little bit other. They are of no one and no place, always looking to the skies with a longing that aches, borne aloft on dragonback with wings that can take them anywhere except for home. And the tragedy that they cannot even find peace amongst themselves, and are doomed, like Valyria, to destroy themselves.
And all of that is so clear in House of the Dragon, and I'm absolutely living for it. This was always my favorite aspect of Daenerys' story in ASoIaF/GoT, what was always the most resonant for me. It just so happens as I write this that in my GoT rewatch I've started S5, which is the season with the most Sehnsucht re: Dany as a Targ, which is perhaps why I am pining so hard myself.
Anyway...
I've often said about Game of Thrones that you can have all the gorgeous sets and locations in the world, beautiful costume design, a (mostly) good cast, but none of it matters if the writing is bad. HotD proves that in spades, because the only functional difference between it and GoT is the quality of the writing. It's the same world, drawing from source material from the same author, with the same production value and resources at its disposal, but even just this first episode is miles better than its predecessor. And that's because, frankly, it has entirely different writing staff and showrunners.
Ryan Condal was the biggest unknown quantity to me going into the premiere, having seen none of his previous work, and he's the headwriter and showrunner, so I was RATHER ANXIOUS. But that anxiety seems to have been misplaced. The writing of this first episode is superb and better than anything GoT ever made me suffer through.
The opening sentence of the Fire & Blood chapter that this first episode is named for, The Heirs of the Dragon, is as follows: "The seeds of war are oft planted during times of peace." Which is a great way to describe the episode, to be honest. It does a beautiful job establishing the state of the world during the height of the Targaryen dynasty just before its self-inflicted decline and showing in loving detail exactly what is about to be lost. I still question the decision to begin with the Dance of the Dragons, which starts halfway through the first volume of Fire & Blood, rather than the Conquest which begins the dynasty. But if you are going to begin a story here, this is how to do it.
I just. I'm out of poetry. I've been working on this post off and on for days. So just know: I'm a tiny bit taken with this show. And relieved beyond measure. Maybe finally, finally, we're going to get an adaptation of this source material that isn't embarrassing to admit to liking.
