Nothing to speak of in terms of Waiver Wednesday action, which gives me a chance to talk about House of the Dragon. This show, which I finally chose to sit down and watch through the first season, is not very good. Sure, there are incredible moments, but these moments are symptomatic of what the show has set out to be–a series of moments cast over the history of a family. I wish the darn thing had come with such a warning label, because I did not know I was getting into a bloody History Channel retrospective.
The first 9 episodes of House of the Dragon take place over a span of 20+ years. We start with two girls who are in their mid teens and by the end of the 9th episode the actresses have been recast and their children have been recast. It is a sweeping drama that doesn’t pause to fully express human stories, but lingers in moments of epic importance to the point where the only thing you know about characters (and thus how you define them) are by the epic moments. There are few to no small moments for characters. When those softer moments do happen, it is definitely a precursor for a death or major trauma. In truth, House of the Dragon is defined by major trauma–it is all we are allowed to see. Well, that and constant easter eggs to the coming story of GOT. What I find most unnerving about the latter is that the Game of Thrones story never finished. Even here in the prequels (whose material is derived from Martin’s historical text Fire and Blood) there is nothing but hints to how the war against the threat behind the wall may be won. But, we never saw that war be won. We saw that war begin.
I’ve been debating a lot about how to write this fantasy epic. What I am learning from this experience is more of what not to do and more of the threat of promising what cannot be done. Martin promised a story he could not finish… or at least will not. I won’t do the same.