George R.R. Martin: Game of Thrones prequel is full of “conflicted, grey characters”
By Dan Selcke
In a few months, HBO will premiere House of the Dragon, its hotly anticipated follow-up to Game of Thrones. Set some 200 years before that series, it will tell the story of the Dance of the Dragons, a brutal civil war fought between rival factions of the Targaryen dynasty, which was then at its height. Brother will fight brother, friends will fight friend, and of course, dragon will fight dragon.
A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin consulted on the series, and he’s been privileged to see a few of the episodes ahead of time, albeit in early form. “It’s dark, it’s powerful, it’s visceral… just the way I like my epic fantasy,” he said after watching the series premiere a few months back. “[Showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik] have done an amazing job, and the cast… just as with GAME OF THRONES, most viewers will only have heard of a few of the actors, but I think you are going to fall in love with a lot of them. (Only to have your heart broken later when… but no, that would be telling).”
Pretty good endorsement, right? “I think the Targaryens are in very good hands,” he continued. “Anticipate away. I do not think you will be disappointed.”
The heart of House of the Dragon is “character drama rather than action/adventure”
Well, now Martin has seen a few more episodes of the show, and he’s still impressed. “I saw rough cuts of a couple more episodes of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, and was just as pleased as I was with the earlier episodes,” he wrote the other day on his Not a Blog. “Ryan and Miguel and their cast and crew are doing great work. Those of you who like complex, conflicted, grey characters (as I do) will like this series, I think. There will be plenty of dragons and battles, to be sure, but the spine of the story is the human conflicts, the love and the hate, character drama rather than action/ adventure.”
The Dance of the Dragons is indeed full of grey characters. Is Rhaenyra Targaryen a vainglorious warmonger or a commanding queen? Is Daemon Targaryen a violent psycho or a tragic antihero? I’m happy to hear that the show is embracing the moral haziness of the story; looking at the source material — Martin’s book Fire & Blood — I don’t think there’s any other approach that would work.
It’s also nice to hear that the show will front the character drama, although of course we will get big dragon-on-dragon battles sooner or later. The signs are good, but we’ll have to wait until the show premieres on August 21 to see for ourselves.
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