House of The Dragon, Episode 1: Beautifully Filmed and Acted, But Overall, Mostly Contrived

**SPOILERS**

I’m a big fan of Game of Thrones and when House of The Dragon was announced, I was fully aware that HBO was just beating that dead horse till the very last coin was pummeled from its very atoms, as most studios do now with popular franchises. However, I gave it a chance as I was curious to see where it was going.

Boys, Boys, Boys

The series starts out 200 years before Game of Thrones when House Targaryen ruled Westeros ten dragons strong. Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) is named “by the gods” as the new King over Princess Rhaenys Velaryon (Eve Best). From what we know he is a king that is loved and is expecting a baby with his wife Aemma Arryn (Sian Brooke).

Viserys has been badgering his wife for a son for some years, fully ignoring that he already has a healthy daughter, the young Princess, Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock). He is sure that this baby yet to be born is a boy and his heir to the throne.

Aemma lets him know that this will be the last pregnancy for her as she has already mourned the loss of a handful of their children both stillborn and miscarried. But she still bears the fault of not “giving him a boy”, because even in Fantasy, no one understands sex chromosomes.

Enter The Dragon

Source: HBO

Enter “the bad guy”, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), brother to Viserys and chosen by the King to be his heir, should he not deliver a son. Daemon is obviously the character that’s going to vie for the crown right from his introduction.

With a snide look of ambition in his eye and a narcissistic personality, Daemon looks to be the ancestor that the Viserys (Harry Lloyd) of Game of Thrones inherited his temperament from.

Daemon is the whore monger and fighter. He takes part in the bloody joust that is, ironically, the celebration of the pending birth of the King’s son. Though he appears to be smarter than Game of Thrones Viserys, he is rather forthcoming about his ambition through his actions and words.

His level of true intelligence is yet to be known.

In All Honesty…

We’ve seen the same trope over and over again through the ages.

King wants boy heir, “only” has daughters, ambitious brother plots to overthrow King because he won’t become King any other way. Fairy tales of old and period pieces throughout movie history were written like this, so it’s disappointing to see it once again. With the Fantasy genre it’s possible to imagine so much of what hasn’t been written before, which is one reason I love it so much.

Source: HBO

I, for one, am exhausted by women used in stories as whores, victims, objects and vessels to give birth, for men.

Martin actually wrote some great male characters in Game of Thrones, many of them main characters. House of The Dragon is chock full of sexist men who are not ashamed to hate women and treat them as such, even in the “kindest” way. Please don’t whine about “that was the way of things” as it’s an utterly different, fantasy world than Earth in so many other ways.

Leave it to HBO to continue the old, white, straight, cis male normative though, as their platform still supports outright bigoted white males like Bill Maher. Why can’t we leave that history in the past where it belongs?

Still, I was impressed with the beautiful visuals and most of the performances. Matt Smith is a strong, confident talent as Daemon, though I’m wondering if the character will be worthy of it. Rhys Ifans plays a captivating Hand of the King, and the rest of the cast, that I wasn’t so sure about, played their roles effectively.

I had expected that House of the Dragon would be an utter disappointment, but its creation definitely has its artistic assets. It could turn into a decent story, but as the first episode stands, it is everything we’ve already seen and heard before.

I’m not sure if I will continue to watch the series. It really is difficult, as a woman, to sit through more violence and disrespect of women after seeing and taking it as long as I have. To disrespect the birthing process as “lower” and as a woman’s “duty” is horrifying. No girl growing up should have to see that, but time and time again, men tell our stories and place us where they want us.

Source: HBO

In reality, birth is probably the toughest thing anyone could survive, as, not only does it alter your body entirely, but women, mostly women of color, still die in childbirth today. For the story to make rather light of Aemma’s breech birth and have her life left in the hands of idiotic men is so insulting.

Director Miguel Sapochnik is quoted in an article explaining, “We felt that was an interesting way to explore the fact that for a woman in medieval times, giving birth was violence”. Hey Miguel, in case you weren’t aware, this is a fantasy, not a history of the world and there is nothing “interesting” about the violence that women endure in this world. It’s horrifying and could be mostly avoidable, if we could ever progress.

The director/writers could have created a world that treated women with the respect and dignity that we deserve. I dare any man to attempt to navigate monthly periods, childbirth, miscarriages, stillborns and menopause with the grace and strength that people with uteruses do. Yet in the story, they cut this poor woman up, while she is awake, without her consent, to attempt to “save the boy” over her. They gave her “milk of the poppy” for her labor pains but not to help her die in some peace? What the hell were you thinking Miguel?

People with uteruses give birth to the world and yet still do not have equality or equity with cis males. It is utterly astonishing and physically excruciating to continue to see the same despicable treatment of women in movies and series of today. I personally am tired of it and can’t wait to see a whole different scenario than the tired toxic masculine/feminine of humanity on Earth.

For the most part, the stories that dare to treat women and girls with respect are written by women, and we sorely need a lot more of those in mainstream and big budget.

So far, House of the Dragon is rife with barbaric, toxic masculinity and overbearing sexism, even more so than Game of Thrones, and that is thoroughly disappointing.