House of The Dragon - SPOILERS

Mason Lawlor - Ngāti Pāhauwera, Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Manu (he/him)

If you haven’t watched Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon, spoiler alert! You’ve been warned.

Dun dun dun-dun-dun-dun-dun dun dun-dun-dun-dun….

Welcome back to the wonderful world of Thrones. We have been waiting for so long to watch the ups, downs, twists, turns, surprises, and disappointments of possibly one of the most loved TV shows … despite how gruesome, vulgar, and outrageous it is. Ever since that final episode in 2019, fans have been hungry for more. Some time ago we heard rumours of the show carrying on. Now our prayers and demands have been answered.  

A few weeks ago, the first episode of The House of The Dragon was released.

The show takes place in the year 101, 172 years before the time of Daenerys. Since the beginning of GOT, the Targaryens have been hidden behind a dark cloud. But in HOTD, this is the golden age for them. A Targaryen is a King who lives at King’s Landing, and most impressively, they have 15 dragons, enabling them to rule the land. There are many callbacks to the original show threaded through the episodes. We hear names and places such as ‘Baratheon’, ‘Stark’, and ‘Westeros’, as well as numerous easter eggs that GOT fans are all too familiar with.

In saying this, I do have some worries about this new series. The last season of Thrones was a joke. Both the storyline and characters’ development that was pertinent to the lovability of the show was confusing, which caused frustration among fans. This includes things such as the directors turning Daenerys from a Queen that everyone loved to a Queen not too different from Cersei. Also, Bran? The Broken? For King? How about banning Jon to The Wall instead of sitting on the throne? The directors had spent seven seasons setting up for Jon to be King by the end of the show, but did that happen? No. 

No doubt there are a bunch of surprises and shocks in store for us, similar to what the original show delivered, such as the Red Wedding, Ned’s decapitation, the big reveal of Jon’s whakapapa, Jon sussing his aunty :0 Jon killing his ‘Queen’ (ka aroha hoki), or the Night King bringing back Daenerys’ dragon and army back to life.

Despite my concerns, I am still excited at the potential The House of The Dragon has. It has completely new characters, but is still in the same world of Thrones, loved all around the world. Furthermore, the writer of the original book the show is based on, George R. R. Martin, is a producer. Just like seasons 1-6 were, The House of The Dragon is based on Martin's book (and let’s hope it stays that way).