This article contains spoilers from Sunday’s episode of “House of the Dragon.”
“House of the Dragon” has finally given viewers the massive battle they’ve been anticipating since the show’s second season.
The famed Battle of the Gullet is described in George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood” as one of the “bloodiest sea battles in all of history,” a collision of naval ships and dragon fire between the Blacks and the Greens. Like many book readers have been anticipating, the episode ends with Rhaenyra Targaryen’s (Emma D’Arcy) first son and heir, Jacaerys “Jace” Velaryon (Harry Collett), being pierced by arrows and killed.
Jace’s death ushers in a grave silence as the battle comes to an end and the screen cuts to black. This silence, which should be accompanied by a sense of dread and mourning for viewers, doesn’t really hit the mark like it should. See, “House of the Dragon” has suffered from playing fast and loose with its characters’ motivations, seeing them bob back and forth like buoys cast away at sea. Each death since King Viserys Targaryen’s (Paddy Considine) in Season 1 has felt abnormally lackluster.
While the series’ scope isn’t much different from its predecessor “Game of Thrones,” the time that progresses during this era is so expansive, the writers can’t seem to keep up with it or the show’s sprawling cast of characters. Because of this, the deaths that have taken place simply occur instead of having any emotional impact.
Jace, who grew from a child to a young adult in the span of four episodes in Season 1, doesn’t feel as important as any of the Stark children or the Lannister children. While he and Rhaenyra are said to have a strong bond in “Fire & Blood,” HBO’s adaptation has placed them at odds with one another. Rhaenyra’s attachment to Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), paired with her allowing three Targaryen bastards to become dragon riders, has Jace viewing his mother as a flawed woman whose choices put his life, and his legitimacy as her heir, at risk.
By forcing this infighting, we don’t often see Jace outside of appearances at his mother’s small council, where he lurks in the shadows and broods like a petulant child. This is intensified in Season 3’s premiere episode, where he locks Rhaenyra in her chambers, and flies to take part in The Battle of the Gullet with only Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia) by his side.
In “Fire & Blood,” Jace is involved in the battle not because he’s a teenager desperate to prove himself to his mother; he’s involved because his younger siblings Aegon and Viserys — who are nothing more than a footnote in this show — are on a ship that has been attacked by the Greens’ forces.
In Martin’s novel, Jace is described as “a worthy heir to the Iron Throne,” and none of the losses Team Black has had “were felt so deeply as that of [his].” But, the Jace we see onscreen has neither proven himself to be a worthy heir, nor has he made an impact on viewers who are supposed to mourn his onscreen death. While “Game of Thrones” allowed its audience to spend vital time with characters and build up their relationships, “House of the Dragon” would rather chip away at the foundations of these characters, molding them into stone caricatures whose minds the audience can’t penetrate no matter how hard they try.
It’s a shame, because even in its worst moments, “Game of Thrones” at least understood how to make its audience feel each character’s death, no matter if they had a few episodes of screen time or were season-long fan favorites. It forced its audience to sit in uncomfortable silences as its characters strode — or at times rushed — toward their fateful ends, allowing the consequences that lead up to these final moments slowly unfold along the way. Unfortunately, “House of the Dragon” appears to have made its bed with its pacing issues. Gone are the days when reactions to characters’ deaths amassed millions of views on YouTube, leaving in its wake a franchise where deaths feel hollow and inconsequential.
When main characters like Robb Stark (Richard Madden) and supporting players like Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) died, we had spent enough time with these characters to understand and feel how these deaths would not only change the people within the series, but the audience outside of it. Instead, the characters in this prequel exist in a strange limbo, one which makes it clear that these deaths are supposed to make viewers feel something, while simultaneously unfolding in a way that leaves you staring blankly at your screen. The writers have held its audience at more than an arm’s length, where they are unable to love and grieve these characters in a way that this show should allow for.
In the penultimate season of “House of the Dragon,” the stakes grow with each episode. Despite this, the show’s unwillingness to allow their characters to become multifaceted and fleshed out has forced its emotional weight to become stagnant. One of the best things about “Game of Thrones,” even though the show ended with a whimper rather than a bang, was how it forced its viewers to become emotionally tethered to its vast cast of characters. Even when characters who were still alive in Martin’s novels perished onscreen, these deaths, no matter how head-scratching, were felt tenfold.
If “House of the Dragon” stays true to the foundations of Martin’s novels, these final two seasons will see more than a dozen characters perish. While the road to get to this point may be thrilling to watch, each of these fatalities will inevitably let down readers of Martin’s work and show-only viewers alike.
Unlike “‘Game of Thrones,” where characters and their demises had a significant impact on the show’s narrative and its viewers’ psyches, this series has exiled itself from the needed emotional connection audiences should have with its characters since its ill-advised inception. In doing so, “House of the Dragon” has doomed itself to become a pale imitation of its predecessor, whose emotional impact rocked the modern television landscape and shaped how modern audiences engaged with its characters.
“House of the Dragon” airs on HBO and HBO Max on Sundays.
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