Early impressions for House of the Dragon praise the actors, tease big shocks

Earlier this week, the cast and crew of House of the Dragon turned out in New York City to watch the season 2 premiere. Also present were many other guests, none of whom are supposed to give away spoilers...

HOWEVER, some people are still sharing their spoiler-free impressions...and others are just throwing caution to the wind and giving out more details. We're not going to share any proper spoilers in this post, but we will take a look at what people are saying. Writing on X, here's what @kayleens_coffee thought of the premiere:

"TGC" is Tom Glynn-Carney, who plays the newly minted King Aegon II Targaryen. I think he's been stealing the trailers for the show so I'm not surprised to hear that he's a highlight of the new episode. Speaking on TikTok, Fantastic Frankey also praised Aegon. "We finally see his personality and it's very likable." Frankey also had lots of praise for Emma D'Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen. "Emmy D'Arcy is probably gonna get an Emmy for this season. [Rhaenyra's] pain and anger is palpable in every scene that she's in."

Frankey praised the look of the show more generally. "It's clear that the showrunners are on Twitter listening to everything we've been complaining about. Everyone's wig was on point, the costumes were decadent and beautiful, they've updated some landmarks that previously we had said were underwhelming, and they were not afraid to show these dragons." In some cases I don't think the showrunners listening to what people are saying on Twitter is a good idea, because criticism online can sometimes be contradictory and self-serving, but insofar as the look of the show goes, I'm happy they've upped their game.

The House of the Dragon season 2 premiere contains a big surprise

Here's where we have to be careful. A couple of people who attended the premiere have alluded to a shocking event that happens. My impression is that this event does not have to do with Blood and Cheese, two characters drawn from the pages of George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood who will do something unspeakable early in the season. That will be shocking as well, but it's not the thing that shocked attendees at the premiere.

"This episode might break the fandom and it wont be because of [Blood and Cheese] (partially) but something else that utterly shocked me," writes @ladydragonjj on X. Fantastic Frankey may allude to this shocking event in her score for the episode: four out of five Frankey Flames. "And sorry, but I can't explain why it lost one."

If you look hard enough, you can probably find out what these people are talking about, but we're not going to mention it here for fear of HBO bringing the hammer down on us. HBO, we love you and want to be invited to a premiere! If you're reading, take note!

I will say this wouldn't be the first time that House of the Dragon introduced something shocking to the narrative. In the series premiere, they added a wrinkle that was not present in Fire & Blood: King Viserys Targaryen revealed that one of the reasons it's important for Targaryens to sit the Iron Throne is because of a prophecy that says a Targaryen must be on the throne when the White Walkers invade centuries later, something that happens on Game of Thrones. That twist went over pretty well and added a lot of texture to the series. Will this new twist be as successful? We'll find out when House of the Dragon season 2 premieres on Sunday, June 16.

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