malte-neumann

Obviously, in this case Martin's original material is somewhat problematic for a series. When the main characters were mostly in close proximity to each other, at the royal court around the Iron Throne, the scenic progression was much smoother. Now, since Team Black and Team Green are separated by vast regions, quite implausible maneuvers are being executed to place the protagonists in danger or to have them directly communicate with each other. We are now experiencing for the third time in a row that the highest-ranking individuals of the respective parties can be closely approached, achieving previously incredible travel speeds. In a legendary fictional chronicle like Martin's SOIAF, the logical challenges are not particularly striking, but in a series that aims to establish a certain level of plausibility, one has to scratch one's head in wonder that this keeps working. In the end, all the protagonists still come away unscathed anyway.

One gets the feeling that HotD is essentially over. Everything has already been said, all positions have been taken long ago, now the characters just need to take the next steps for the overdue event. The war's outbreak is unnecessarily delayed, for technical reasons of course, but most of all, to showcase the female characters' principal peacefulness and ability to empathize. Rhaenyra and Alicent act as if they were modern-day matriarchs, polished characters who seem totally unrealistic in this merciless, medieval setting. We learn again that those high-born women do not seek violence; only men are irrational hotheads. These women stick to their claims only out of loyalty - to their fathers, to their sons, out of love essentially. This is, of course, tragic. But it's a shallow, clichéd tragedy that does not challenge the viewer at all. This is soap opera level.

What elevated at least this episode were the improved quality of the dialogues, the musical score, and finally, the cinematography, which reminded us of the achievements of the first season.

Nevertheless, the personal drama of Ice and Fire seems to be long exhausted, and there isn't much left to do but turn it into an action drama.

After the first season handled the covert and semi-covert conflicts in King's Landing astonishingly well, the beginning of the second season loses itself in unnecessary iterations. This time, progress is too slow. The dialogues seem stiff and predictable, remaining as unenlightening as the setting of the scenes. We already know the protagonist's attitudes from the first season, and to go through them again feels like a routine exercise, indicating a lack of imagination. That's the difference with GoT, where dialogues in the second and third seasons still had urgency because of its expanding worldbuilding. In House of the Dragon, we are stuck in the same place and are just going round in circles. Seemingly as an exercise to break through, we witness nearly impossible assassination attempts. Perhaps more care and more time should have been invested in their execution instead of having the usual characters exchange the usual arguments afterwards. The subsequent procession of Alicent and Heleana, however, feels like a missed opportunity that evokes no emotions. Apart from that, there is dimly lit stagnation and redundancy. Yes, we know Daemon is ruthless and likes to disappear from time to time. Yes, the Queen Mother bathes regularly or likes to enjoy herself with Cole, but we do not understand how Cole's position is so ridiculously stable, despite the murder of the heir to the throne happening under his watch (he even gets a promotion later on). And Mysaria's relevance still remains a mystery to me. The only bright spots so far are the performances of Tom Glynn-Carney as Aegon II and Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower.