SERIES REVIEW – So the day has come: the Game of Thrones universe – in the form of a prequel series – has finally returned to the screens. The Iron Throne was carried out of the film studio’s warehouse and returned to the Great Hall of the Red Castle. The finest medieval clothes and furs were taken from the wardrobe, and now the new actors could hide in them. High Valyrian creator David J Peterson was also brought out of hibernation to write new dialogue. A few days ago, thanks to HBO Max, we were able to participate in a press event during which we could watch the very first episode of the House of Dragons series, which takes place 200 years after Game of Thrones in a cinema.

The long-awaited prequel to the epic fantasy series Game of Thrones, which dominated the television landscape for eight long seasons and several years, is here. It’s from parts of author George RR Martin’s 2018 bestseller Fire and Blood (the release was a bittersweet moment for fans who hoped he’d end the A Song of Ice book series from which Game of Thrones was adapted rather than write a prequel). House of Dragons is, therefore, the story of the Targaryens, from which family the original series basically started.

Everything that worked well in this universe is here.

First, the good news. House of Dragons contains almost every essential component of Game of Thrones in similarly extravagant amounts. Incredibly graphic violence. Orgies. Prostitutes. Incest. Marriages of the most cynical expediency. Endless scheming and politicking. Misogyny, casual and brutal. Heroines want to prove at all costs that they can be just as strong leaders as any man. And, of course, lots of gorgeous medieval character names (Lady Alicent Hightower, Ser Vaemond Velaryon, Lord Lyman Beesbury).

As before, there are some inventive, creepy and exceptionally creatively cruel villains and an epic soundtrack by good old Ramin Djawadi, with amazingly dynamic strings that soar and flap like dragons and drums that sound like pounding horse hooves. And the plot, as fans can expect, is an intricate and slowly unfolding web of rivalry and anger, betrayal and revenge.

Unique characters are still missing

However, I think the first episode of House of Dragons falls a bit short of Game of Thrones in one key area. In addition to sex, blood and battles, Game of Thrones is so terribly captivating by the often grotesque, nightmarish character uniqueness of the characters. The amazingly numerous, flamboyantly diverse and instantly memorable characters formed an almost Dickensian gallery of grotesques. The radiantly hateful Queen Cersei. The ominously swearing House Sparrow. The hilariously sadistic Ramsay Bolton. The cheerfully malicious Sandor Clegane, with a half-burnt face and a Hungarian name, the “Dog”…

Of course, some of these great characters weren’t even in the first series, and we only saw the first part anyway. (Although foreign critics have already seen six episodes, they also complained about the lack of such characters.) Perhaps the best characters of the House of Dragons will appear later. However, I think only two of the ones I’ve seen so far can measure up to the number of Game of Thrones monsters. The first Matt Smith’s Prince Daemon Targaryen, a scheming, snake-like menace, is a slithering, haughty sociopath. He’s a bit like Arthas from World of Warcraft. The other is the chilling Lord Larys Strong (Matthew Needham).

However, some of the others seem a bit functional. The biggest shortcoming is a character fit for Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf Machiavelli of Game of Thrones. He is charmingly witty, devilishly resourceful, constantly gets himself into trouble, and then somehow gets out of it: no one in the House of Dragons has his sometimes evil, sometimes “good”, just sufficiently cynical – but intelligent aura.

A little too serious yet, but promising

No one here is a funny character. No one gives the dialogue a hint of playful oomph and spunk like Tyrion, the perfectly blunt Bronn, or Lady Olenna Tyrell (the Westeronian equivalent of Aunt Wodehouse).

I don’t mean to suggest that the first episode of House of Dragons is a disappointment. (It couldn’t be with such a result.) It’s not. It’s well done. It is brilliantly photographed. It is full of tension, and already in the first episode, we can see such amazingly creative scenes as the extremely rough jousting shown in FPS mode. And I can’t wait to find out what happens in the next episode – since I’ve only seen one so far. But Game of Thrones – set the bar frighteningly high.

Perhaps the new series will manage to topple this for the rest of the series. For starters, though, I’d say it has a lot more dragons than before – but a notch less magic.

-BadSector-