It's been noted for a while that the best Game of Thrones sequences typically consists of only a few elegant characters conversing with one another in lavish settings. This was before HBO increased the show's budget to massive CGI battle levels after realising there was money to be made in the Westerosi hills. However, Game of Thrones was frequently happy to let its characters talk things out, with George R.R. Martin's imaginative dialogue.
"The Rogue Prince," the second episode of House of the Dragon, has an issue in that it doesn't exactly have the same storytelling quality that the first episode did. This long hour of television does not completely crush the show's chances of succeeding to the Iron Throne, but it definitely lessens those chances.
About six months after "The Heirs of the Dragon's" ending, "The Rogue Prince' ' begins. Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) has moved in at the Targaryen ancestral mansion of Dragonstone after stomping out in a furious huff. Despite the fact that Dragonstone is meant to be the residence of the king's true heir, King Viserys I (Paddy Considine) and his council are happy to let him have his tantrum there. The king is compelled to take action when Daemon announces his engagement to the "Lady" Mysaria (Sonoyo Mizuno) and kidnaps a dragon egg for their unborn child.
While episode 1 of House of the Dragon has a genuine sense of importance due to its sense of (fictional) historical accuracy to its source material. Episode 2 runs into some problems with that historical approach. We don't always know what transpires in George R.R. Martin's fictitious history, just as we don't always know what really happened in our world's real history.
Although Martin's characters are able to make some pretty reasonable assumptions. The fact that "The Heirs of the Dragon" contains so many of these educated guesses may be the reason it closely mirrors the first few seasons of Game of Thrones.
Although the portrayal of Dragonstone is visually magnificent and continues a nice trend of the series improving on their production design from Game Of Thrones. The scene's action is far from convincing. Although recently appointed Kingsguard Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) reminding Daemon about who knocked him off his horse is admittedly pleasant. Daemon folds far too easily and the scene's dialogue doesn't really stand up.
The truth is that "The Rogue Prince" is full of talky moments with dialogue that simply doesn't pass inspection. The first scene of the show, which has a lot of talk between Viserys and his intended child-bride Alicent (Emily Carey), is compelling enough. Even if we discover the horrifying fact that Viserys isn't a skilled craftsman and the stonemasons are responsible for his Old Valyria model's construction. The typical "people talking in rooms" approach, however, lacks the witty banter and energy that this writing is usually capable of.
With all that being said, this episode is still a lot of fun despite these small flaws. Given the great production quality and richness of Martin's original story. This episode harkens back to the earlier Game Of Thrones series, which brought so much success to this world.
When a large portion of your storyline revolves around characters conversing in enclosed spaces. The words that they choose to say are all that stand between an engaging and uninteresting story.
Thankfully, "The Rogue Prince" ends with a promise of more visual episodes ahead. Even if Corlys and Daemon's final exchange is way too expository (and once more looks to follow current Thrones fast travel rules), it does build up the first legitimate martial confrontation in the series. The opening and ending views of the warlord Craig Has "The Crabfeeder" Dreher, who takes his nickname very literally. He is contemplating the carnage he has done, and these moments are stunning to see.
Overall, this episode was very chatty. Ideally, if this is going to continue throughout this season, then the dialogue needs to be spiced up a bit more. These types of episodes can still be entertaining to watch. However, there does need to be a balance between these scenes and some action in some form. The acting is good in this episode, but when you are limited to lengthy talkative scenes, there's only so much you can do.
I’m hopeful for a stronger and more visually pleasing episode next time. If these chatty scenes are here for the long run, hopefully, they will be much more interesting to watch.
Performance | 3.5/5 |
Enjoyment | 3.3/5 |
Overall Rating | 3.3/5 |