Sentencing a man to a horrifying death without trial evokes memory of the Mad King more so than the noble and able ruler that Varys claims Dany is to Tyrion. The scene in the dragonpit itself is magnificent, but this act by Daenerys is less so. In her rage, Daenerys invokes House Targaryen’s words ("Fire and Blood") as she feeds one of the Meereenese noblemen to Viserion and Rhaegal while the others are forced to watch. Grey Worm seems to have just barely survived the attack, but Barristan’s glorious career has come to a rather ignoble end at the hands of the Sons of the Harpy. The episode begins out east, where Daenerys and company are dealing with the fallout from last week’s carnage. White Walkers and slavery aren't enough to end the petty violence between the peoples, and it falls to two last scions of ruined Houses to bring focus onto these existential crises. We find that no matter how righteous the cause or noble the conviction, ruling requires more than just pure intentions. The episode titles draws from advice Aemon Targaryen gives Jon, but applies to all the plot threads where young persons are thrust into positions of power (see also: Ramsay and Sansa). "Kill the Boy" focuses exclusively on characters in the North and around Meereen, so comparing the two young rulers gives us insight into the perils of command. Literally, the powers are conceptualized in the form of the White Walkers in the North and the dragons in the East, but more interestingly, they refer to two of our main heroes: Jon Snow of House Stark and Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen. So far these characters feel like generic substitutes who happen to carry the last names of characters we once adored."Game of Thrones" gets its name from the first book of George RR Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire," and while the meaning of that song is a bit obscured, the polarity of Ice and Fire represents many of the main threads running through the story. One conceals an absence of depth and the other implies there is depth whilst revealing it along the way, piece by piece. They are still pretty faces with no backstory, and there is a grand difference between lack of backstory and crafting mystery. House of the Dragon has failed in its three episodes to explain anything of meaning about Daemon, Rhaenyra, her father, his Hand, his wife. We understood why Robert Baratheon gave little care to Cersei, because in the opening minutes we see his obsession for Lyanna. but why? Who is he? Why is he the kings hand? Who is he to the king? These are questions the Game of thrones initial episodes gave us for characters like Ned and his relationship to the baratheons. The varying houses are all well established, Otto Hightower is a secretive and despicable man. House of the Dragon assumes because the Targaryens are Targaryens we care about them. The opening sequence gave us a map that showed us from where our characters came and played on the great houses. Polticking that gave meat to a world we didn't understand, but quickly wanted to understand. Tyrion and Jamie jesting about their father. Scenes such as Varys and Littlefinger discussing the succession in the first episode. The reason Game of Thrones, both the book and the first series had people across the world hooked was not dragons (because there were none in season 1) - it was not enormous battles (because there were none in season 1) It was because an extremely intriguing cast of characters, with dynamic backgrounds, clear and concise motivations (or mysterious and elusive ones) played off of each other in dialogue and in contrast.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |