The House of the Dragon | ‘The House of the Dragon’: this is the feminist prequel to ‘Game of Thrones’

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‘The House of the Dragon’ (HBO Max, from Monday, the 22nd), first successor series ‘Game of Thrones’ is a more than important bet for HBO: its level of success will give clues to the potential as a franchise of the universe created by George RR Martin, who has been involved in this production as he did not in a ‘spin-off’ ‘ from the shot and discarded pilot, ‘Bloodmoon,’ about the apocalyptic period of the Long Night.

Those who do not participate are the ‘showrunners’ of ‘Game of Thrones’, David Benioff y D. B. Weiss, since the summer of 2019 partners in a lucrative deal with Netflix. bosses are now Ryan Condal (co-creator of ‘Colony’), superfan and almost godson of Martin, and a veteran of the parent series, Miguel Sapochnik, director of such notable episodes as ‘Hard House’, ‘The Battle of the Bastards’ and ‘Winds of Winter’. “I contributed to creating a differentiated style, especially in terms of battle scenes,” Sapochnik himself remarked to us by video call.

Simplify a triple story

Unlike the announced sequel about Jon Snow, this prequel is based on a plot that Martin had detailed in writing. Specifically, in his not-so-read 2018 ‘Fire and Blood’ billet, (triple) (falsely) historical account of ancient House Targaryen becomings. Adapting it was a challenge, recalls Condal: “It is not a novel to use. A master of the Citadel reviews three different stories of historical events and tries to find out what really happened, because the versions do not fit together. The book has a point polyhedral view in the style of ‘Rashomon’, Akira Kurosawa’s classic. That ended up giving us some freedom of movement. We chose the aspects that interested us to build a simple and linear version of a very complicated work”.

Set a couple of centuries before “Game of Thrones,” the series traces the roots and course of a civil war between the ancestors of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), queen of dragons. If the name hadn’t been taken, it could have been called ‘Succession’. Aware of the end of his days, King Jaeharys Targaryen (Michael Carter) summons an assembly of nobles to elect a successor. With no living children as candidates, he ends up choosing his grandson Viserys (Paddy Considine), discarding along the way the oldest cousin of the previous one, Rhaenys (Eve Best), just because it is a woman.

Fourteen years later, Viserys himself is as hesitant as Logan Roy about whom to hand over power to. Victim of numerous abortions, his wife has not managed to give him a male heir. A logical choice would be his eldest daughter Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), but no woman has ever sat on the Iron Throne before. Vyseris’s little brother, a fickle and violent warrior named Daemon (Matt Smith), seems destined to be the heir. The choice worries Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), the Hand of the King, to the point of placing his daughter Alicent in the arms of Vyseris (Emily Carey), Rhaenyra’s best friend, to be exact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5cTWyXfKgY

“This is, in essence, the story of a female friendship that ends up falling apart because of the patriarchy,” she tells us. Emma D’Arcy, who plays Princess Rhaenyra as an adult. In this timeline, the great Olivia Cooke (‘Slow horses’) is Alicent, wife of the king and, therefore, queen. “The patriarchy understands that the way to control women is by sowing discord among them and pitting them against each other,” D’Arcy continues. “Throughout the series, they seek reunification by fighting against the structure that is trying to divide them.”

Political series… but less?

Without really looking for it, Condal and Sapochnik found a clear central idea for their series: the patriarchy prefers to destroy itself than let a woman rule. “The only thing that could bring down the House of the Dragon was itself,” is heard in the prologue. D’Arcy confirms this pertinent feminist angle: “The series talks about female leaders and their lack. One of the questions it raises is: if you are a woman who wants to govern, how do you convince an electorate? I think it is a topical question. We continue to elect male leaders”. On the other hand, ‘The House of the Dragon’ focuses on the dangers of childbirth in that era –childbirth is another battlefield– and the sexual violence suffered by women at the hands of men.

Just a few days ago, the actor Sean Bean (former Ned Stark) sowed some controversy by assuring ‘The Times’ that the figure of the intimacy coordinator has ruined the sex scenes. He appears reinforced in ‘The House of the Dragon’ so as not to fall into temptations of mere exploitation of the bodies. It is not the only difference with the mother series: “We wanted ‘House of the Dragon’ to feel familiar and at the same time make it clear that it takes place one hundred and seventy years ago“, says Condal. “It had to be a reunion with Westeros, but clearly in a different era; even in the medieval period, when technology could advance more slowly than it does now, almost two centuries was almost two centuries. The challenge was knowing what to change and what to keep in every aspect, from production design to fashion and sensibility.”

“Just because of how they dress, the targaryens were fascistsSapochnik points out. “They are as close to an Aryan race as you can imagine. And yet, we try to put ourselves in the shoes of these people, people who do evil without believing that they do so. Considine’s character is interesting because he’s a progressive Targaryen.”

As if trying to preserve the conservative public, Condal refers to ‘The House of the Dragon’ as “funny escapism” and denies that it is a political series, “although political things happen in it.” He wants us to look elsewhere for lessons. “We weren’t trying to write a graduate project or teach anyone anything. We just wanted to work on the themes and ideas from the first series and present all of that in a fresh way: do the same thing but different”.

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