House of the Dragon creator promises talky Small Council scenes and big moments of spectacle

The first season of House of the Dragon introduced us to a large cast of characters and then followed them over a period of around 20 years. Some characters even switched actors as they aged. It was a lot to keep up with, but the series was a hit, and showrunner Ryan Condal is now emboldened to keep going his own way in season 2, which is currently airing on HBO and Max.

"I think I was most impressed about the general audience response in season 1, and this is in talking to people and also in talking to the other people that work on the show that do pay attention to what's going on online, is how sophisticated the audience is, and how smart they are, and how we threw 20 years of history with 16 names that sort of sound similar, and with multiple bloodlines, and with sort of weird also incestuous bloodlines, and somebody's a husband and also an uncle, and how they all kind of bought into it and followed it through a major recasting at the middle of the season," Condal told SlashFilm. "And I think that was it. I think it was just realizing just how seasoned and sophisticated the audience was and knowing that you could trust them with complicated storytelling."

The first season led up to a war between rival factions of the Targaryen dynasty: the Dance of the Dragons. Now the war is here, so we're done with time jumps and we're (mostly) done with introductions. The show will now proceed at a pace that will recall HBO's Game of Thrones, with an ensemble of characters spread over the map trying to get one over on each other.

It will also have a lot of scenes of people around tables plotting their next move. Condal loves to write Small Council scenes. "I think that was the thing that I loved about early Game of Thrones, that as the war gets bleaker and bleaker and most of the people standing around those tables were dead, I think it was the thing that I missed the most about the simpler days when everybody was strategizing instead of running from the walking dead," he said. "I think the making of a great small council scene is certainly conflict and differing points of view. You don't want a scene where it's just a bunch of people reporting the news. You want a scene where you have counselors that are trying to manipulate or navigate the sovereign sitting at the head of the table into a certain decision as they see it."

"It's interesting, whether it's Rhaenyra or whether it's Aegon, who have obviously approached their counsel very differently. But I think that's what makes for a dynamic room. You want every voice at the table to have a specific position, and point of view, and a way that they're setting about their pursuit of the game of thrones and the way that they're plucking at the marionette strings. And I think when you have a dynamic where things are working on multiple levels, then that's when you have one of those council meetings that's really singing."

I'm all for scenes where characters talk about plans and bounce off each other, but we also watched Game of Thrones for the spectacular battle scenes. Condal promises a couple of those on the way too. "I’m incredibly proud of the dramatic work that’s done in this show. Episodes 1 and 2 are a great showcase of that," he told IndieWire. "I bounce back and forth between really enjoying the spectacle that we put on the screen, but also just enjoying those great scenes of two people in a room having having an argument … For me, it’s enjoying the intimate moments and then the really big, explosive moments of spectacle. We have two in particular that are coming later in the season that are the biggest things we’ve ever done and I’m really excited for everybody to see."

We know that there's a giant action scene called the Battle of Rook's Rest coming in the fourth episode of this season. The second "big, explosive moment of spectacle" has been harder to pin down, but we probably won't see it until near or end of the season.

This new season of House of the Dragon will run for eight episodes, so things will wrap up in early August. New episodes drop Sunday nights on HBO and Max.

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