House of the Dragon comes out swinging, putting the pressure on its swords and sandals fantasy rival, Lord of the Rings, to come correct!
Genre: TV – One Hour (Fantasy)
Premise: Tensions are high in the House of the Dragon, where the king awaits the birth of a new heir. But a series of unfortunate events force him into a contingency plan.
About: Does this show need any introduction? The Targaryen’s are back! Long live Westeros! Okay, I don’t know what either of those things mean but I’m trying to be a Game of Thrones fan here so give me a break!
Showrunners: Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik
Writer of this episode: Ryan Condal
Details: 66 minutes
I remember all the way back to the Done Deal Screenwriting Message Board days when Ryan Condal (the showrunner for House of the Dragon) used to post on the site.
I didn’t know, at the time, that he was considered one of the more knowledgeable posters. I just remember coming across a response he made to another poster’s screenwriting question and thinking, “Whoa. This guy is on another level.”
I don’t even remember what the question was. I just remember how detailed and knowledgeable and assured his reply was. It was clear that he understood screenwriting at a level far beyond anyone else on the site.
So I’m not surprised that he’s made it this far, leading one of the biggest TV shows in history.
A show I wasn’t sure I was going to watch, by the way! I made it through about three seasons of Game of Thrones before there were more storylines I wasn’t interested in than there were storylines I was. It wasn’t like I quit via some declarative feet-stomping tirade. I just was never motivated enough to go back and watch again.
The fresh start that is House of the Dragon allowed me to come back to Westeros without having to worry about if I’d remember everything.
If you didn’t see it, the pilot follows a king named Viserys Targaryen. Viserys is under a lot of pressure to deliver a heir to his throne. Right now, all the family’s got are his young daughter, Rhaenyra, and his brother, Daemon. Due to her being a woman and him being crazy, neither are fit to take over the throne.
Luckily, Viserys’ wife, the Queen, is pregnant. And Viserys is convinced, due to a vivid dream, that his child will be a boy. While we wait for the birth, we engage in a jousting tournament that has Daemon cutting off horse’s legs to ensure he wins. And we have the troublemaking Rhaenyra riding around on her pet dragon.
Eventually, the Queen goes into labor (spoilers) and it’s a barn-burner of a delivery. She’s in immense pain. The baby won’t come out. It’s getting to point where a decision needs to be made. They cut the baby out manually, saving it and killing the Queen. Or they see what happens, in which case they might lose both. Viserys makes his choice, (bigger spoiler) which let’s just say doesn’t go well. This places Viserys in a precarious position. He must choose either Daemon or Rhenyra to succeed him.
Crazy bro, Daemon
Yesterday, I talked about how sloppy the writing was in She-Hulk.
Today, you see how big of a difference good screenwriting makes.
With She-Hulk, they were basically running a scam on the audience. They’re throwing a bunch of randomness on the page and hoping that the reader does the work for them, putting all the pieces together.
Here you can tell this pilot was meticulously crafted. There was purpose to every scene. The characters were all carefully introduced. The order of things was perfectly convceived and executed. Whether you liked the finished product or not, you can’t say there was a lick of laziness in the pilot. It’s that well executed.
One of the ways I identify good writing is through the big scenes. If your big scenes are great, the smaller stuff tends to be strong as well.
House of the Dragon builds its pilot around the Queen’s labor scene. What’s important to note here is how carefully the scene was set up ahead of time. This isn’t just a, “I can’t wait to have a new kid” scene. Pillars have been propped up ahead of time to give this scene as much weight as possible.
Pillar 1: We’ve been told several times how important having a heir to the throne is.
Pillar 2: We’ve seen how important it is to Viserys that he have a son.
Pillar 3 We meet the crazy brother, Daemon, who wants to be king himself. We know Viserys having a son would take Daemon out of the picture.
In other words, the writer sets up high stakes for the labor scene so that when it arrives, we’re invested.
There was very little foresight in She-Hulk which is why it was incapable of creating a scene like this. You could see the writers hurriedly solving problems on the fly. Oh, we need to get Bruce’s blood inside Jennifer so she can become a Hulk. How do we do that? Uhhh, we could put them in a car crash. Okay, why are they in a car together? Uh, I don’t know. They’ve decided to hang out for the weekend? Okay, how does the crash happen? Ehhhh, maybe a spaceship causes it? What spaceship? Not important. We’ll just have it show up and distract her.
I mean, seriously??? This passes for professional screenwriting in 2022?? I’m embarrassed.
Meanwhile, because the labor scene was so well set up, we’re on the edge of our seats waiting to see what will happen. And the writers use one of the best bang-for-your-buck tricks in the business to climax the scene: A Sophie’s Choice. You can save your kid and lose your wife. Or you can do nothing and possibly lose both.
One of the best things you can do as a writer is place your character in a situation with high stakes and an impossible choice. Not a choice that’s weighed 55-45 in one side’s favor. A choice that’s truly 50/50. And that’s what House of the Dragon did.
That scene right there got me on for at least another three episodes. Knowing that that’s the writing bar they’re asking of themselves, I know I’m in good hands.
[Major Spoiler] Unfortunately for Viserys, things didn’t go as planned. He chose to save his baby instead of his wife. And his baby ended up dying too.
This set us up for the succession decision. Who does Viserys name as his successor? Daemon or Rhaenyra?
This was the only thing about the pilot I think they could’ve done a better job with. Unlike the labor decision, which was a true Sophie’s Choice, the succession choice was more of a 65/35 ordeal. It was clear that he was going to choose Rhaenyra. She’s smart. She’s behaved. She’s respected. What is the downside of her being chosen?
They try to float this idea that, because she’s a woman, the people will resist it. It’s unconvincing, though. Especially because we’ve been conditioned in movies and TV over the last decade to assume all female characters will kick butt. It’s a very popular choice among writers right now. So there isn’t the requisite doubt needed for us to assume anything other than Rhaenyra being chosen over Daemon.
What they probably should’ve done was make Rhaenyra more of a trouble-child. She does her own thing. She doesn’t always listen. That way, the choice would’ve been more difficult. But if you gave her those characteristics, her character starts to overlap with Daemon. He’s the troublemaker. Now you have two troublemakers? It’s lazy.
This is why screenwriting is so hard. Cause sometimes you have the solution to a problem but due to the particular makeup of your screenplay, you can’t use that solution.
What I also admire about Game of Thrones, in general, is that they’re unafraid to push storylines that make you feel uncomfortable. I think it’s important to make the reader uncomfortable at times because you want to keep them on edge! You don’t want them to feel too safe, especially in a show about fire-breathing dragons.
There’s a scene late in the pilot where the king’s weasle-y right-hand man, Otto, sees an opportunity to move up in the royal hierarchy after Viserys loses his wife. So the VERY SAME DAY AS THE WIFE’S FUNERAL, Otto sends his 15 year old daughter to Viserys and says to her, “Go make him feel comfortable. Be a shoulder for him to cry on.” The fact that this man would pimp out his own daughter to gain power is Game of Thrones in a nutshell. And I’m here for it.
House of the Dragon is another win for HBO, which continues to have the best TV writing in town. And it isn’t close.
[ ] What the hell did I just stream?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[xx] worth the stream
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: When you don’t have a lot of action in your story. When a lot of the entertainment comes from the drama between the characters, you should look to create a “Sophie’s Choice” every once in a while. An impossible choice attached to a high-stakes problem is one of the most compelling things an audience can watch. Just make sure that the choice is truly impossible. Don’t weight it so it’s clearly better to pick one option over the other. Then it’s just Sally’s Choice, Sophie’s weaker lamer choice-sister.
