Warning: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon.
HBO’s new Game of Thrones spin-off, House of the Dragon, has matched its predecessor’s success as a hit with both critics and audiences. The prequel series has received mostly positive reviews and so many people watched the pilot when it dropped online that HBO Max crashed for many users. One possible reason for the spin-off’s success – besides its connection to one of the most popular shows in the history of television – is that it’s more accessible than the flagship series.
Jumping all over Westeros with an expansive ensemble cast made Game of Thrones difficult to follow for casual viewers. There were a bunch of houses, each with their own agendas and infighting problems, all vying for control of the Seven Kingdoms. Anyone who didn’t have the benefit of familiarity with George R.R. Martin’s dense A Song of Ice and Fire novels had a tough time taking stock of every character on the board and all the intricately interconnected storylines they were involved in. House of the Dragon’s singular focus on the history of the Targaryens means its storylines are a lot easier to keep track of.
Although House of the Dragon takes place two centuries before the events of Game of Thrones, stylistically, it picks up right where Game of Thrones left off. The spin-off deftly recaptures what made Game of Thrones such a joy to watch. Like its predecessor, House of the Dragon has its cake and eats it, too, with a nice balance of taut medieval drama and anything-goes NSFW romp. There’s plenty of subtle dialogue, nuanced acting, and thought-provoking themes, but there’s also plenty of sex and bloodshed. And there are fully fledged dragons from the very beginning, so viewers don’t have to wait for eggs to hatch and babies to grow up to see some dragon action.
While the style of House of the Dragon is virtually indistinguishable from Game of Thrones, its story has a much narrower focus. It’s not about everybody in the world getting into a simultaneous blood feud; it’s about a single blood feud that affects one family in a particular corner of that world. Set at the height of House Targaryen’s reign, 172 years before Daenerys was born, the series will chronicle the outbreak of the civil war among the Targaryens that ultimately brought the family to its knees.
With all its different settings and character clusters, watching Game of Thrones felt like watching several different shows all at once, like the TV split-screen that Marty McFly watches in the future in Back to the Future Part II. Viewers had to stay up to date with the Targaryens, the Starks, the Lannisters, the Baratheons, the Tyrells – the list goes on. The whole series was tied together by various political powers laying claim to the Iron Throne. But there were so many people who felt entitled to sit upon that throne for so many different historical reasons that it was easy to get lost in the complex web of story arcs. In House of the Dragon, everyone who wants to sit on the Iron Throne hails from just one family.
House of the Dragon has been compared to a different HBO series, Succession, with the Targaryen family taking the place of the Roy family in its tale of bitter tensions and infighting within a powerful clan. King Viserys is being pressured to find a new queen to give birth to an heir following the tragic loss of his wife and child. Prince Daemon is the dark horse of the family trying to consolidate power that the king’s counsels don’t trust him with. Princess Rhaenyra is being set up as the first female heir to House Targaryen.
Following these characters and their interpersonal conflicts is a lot breezier than the challenge of charting the sprawling ensemble of dozens of characters in Game of Thrones. House of the Dragon isn’t a simplistic story by any means. There are political rivals and influences coming from left and right. Rhaenys is bitter after being passed over due to her gender, Ser Otto will do what he must to keep Daemon out of power, and the Velaryons are desperate to get their foot in the door. But its complexity is a lot more manageable than that of Game of Thrones. Viewers of Game of Thrones were always on the verge of losing the plot; House of the Dragon is a much more comfortable viewing experience.
Anybody who sets out to binge-watch Game of Thrones (if the vitriolic response to the final season hasn’t put them off the show altogether) needs to have a pencil and paper ready to learn everyone’s names and how they’re all related and why they believe the Iron Throne belongs to them. As House of the Dragon begins its more concentrated narrative, they can just sit back and enjoy the ride.
House of the Dragon is airing on Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.