Ród smoka

Ród smoka (2022) 

I've never seen a single episode of Game of Thrones, but even so, thanks to the many fans around me, I've always been in the loop. Since House of the Dragon takes place before the events of Game of Thrones, there was no need to peek at eight time-consuming seasons, and I could embark in this journey into the world of dragons, feuding houses, political intrigue, and love-hate relationships. Given the "brutal reputation" of Game of Thrones, I was expecting House of the Dragon to be bloodier, but apart from a few downright explicitly drastic scenes, the creators kept a pretty low profile and concentrated more on playing out the (mostly grudge-filled) relationships between the various houses. I definitely liked the second half of Season 1 better. It featured some breathtaking action alongside the ubiquitous politicking. I would criticise the creators for jumping around in time too drastically in places, and I didn't entirely buy the way they approached the "ageing" of characters – keep some actors, replace some (for example, that the actors playing Allicent and Aegon are separated by just over thirteen months). But so be it! From an audiovisual point of view, as expected (but also because of the huge budget), this is a job well done – whether it was the haunting soundtrack, the beautiful locations (both real and CGI), and the work of the costume and make-up designers (especially for the make-up of Viserys) deserves praise. I'm sure I'm repeating myself when I say that I consider the most impressive scenes to be (a) the skirmish between the children followed by a chilling "eye for an eye" confrontation, (b) Viserys's climbing to the Iron Throne followed by a family dinner, and (c) the "dance of the dragons". I'm definitely curious about the next season (or seriess), as the creators ended the first one with a colossally enticing cliffhanger of dragon proportions. (25.10.2022)