We Light the Way

This episode will go down in history as one of the most perfectly written episodes of television ever. The music, dialogue, acting, and writing is all perfect, and it makes for one of the most thrilling and intense hours of television of all time. It feels amazing to finally have another show with the same attention to detail and magnificent writing that "Game Of Thrones" had in its first 4-5 seasons. This show compared to "Game of Thrones" is like comparing "Better Call Saul" to "Breaking Bad". They are both excellent shows in their own rights, and season one, episode five of "House of the Dragon" will go down as the beginning of this show's greatness.

What a beautiful episode, it has a beautiful soundtracks and pictures.

The wedding party is great, it remembers me of GOT world from traditions and dancing, etc. In addition, this wedding has an important details such as the gray character of Daemon, the anger of prince Vaelor who will be a great ally of the Princess and sir Kriston and the ending of the episode which emphasize the coalition between the queen and him against the princess.

Never mention the entering of Alicent hightower with the beautiful green dress, What an amazing scene.

Finally we can say goodbye to young Alicent and princess Raehnaira.

Amd welcome to THE DANCE OF DRAGONS.

Game of Thrones is a success story where storytelling has evolved to keep up with diminishing attention spans.

House of Dragons does the same in this episode.

For modern stories, exposition of characters cannot take too long.

Of course, behind all the threatrics and action, good old storytelling is still indispensable.

House of dragon is so different from Game of Thrones, still packs a punch. Partially because it does not try to be Game of Thrones. It just tries to be a good story, which it is. Very new characters, and audience relate to them very soon.

This time around, the focus is on inter-personal dynamic. Something obviously everyone relates to.

The tension in this episode is mind-blowing and through the roof. Game of Thrones (I consider House of the Dragon the same show as Game of Thrones) is a master class in tension building. No other series can do that like Game of Thrones. There's a particular scene in this episode with no dialogue, but there is so much tension in the air, and it's so unbearable, that you don't even need words to know exactly what everyone is thinking and feeling. The silences, the staring, the facial expressions, the body language... Everything is so well executed, and the acting and the music and the editing are so good that you just know something is about to happen and things cannot end well. It was probably the best episode so far. Alliances have been forged and undone, and I cannot wait to see where all of this is going now.

Viserys negotiates a deal to secure his legacy.

Some of the previous episodes have laid the foundations well for the key moments of this episode to have great tension. It is in these moments that you are on edge waiting to see what will to go wrong and who will be the instigator. There is little else I can say without spoiling.

Visually it is beautiful episode to look at, with virtually every scene containing great cinematic imagery. I particularly love the use of Castleton for the early Vale scenes and everything else on location and inside a studio.

The art design it outstanding as always. One scene that involves a large number of people is especially good and the use of a certain coloured garment was a nice touch.

Some of the more violent and bloody imagery I would say is slightly overly gratuitous to appease the bloodlust of certain audiences, but aside from that I think it is one of the strongest episodes so far.

Paddy Considine is the outstanding performer yet again, with Rhys Ifans also being quietly great in an understated role by his usual standards.