House of the Dragon was a pleasant surprise for many fans of Game of Thrones feeling burned by the heavily panned final season. The return to the Song of Ice and Fire universe has made a name for itself by being different in a number of ways, some better than others.
Game of Thrones was notoriously a very eventful series. A single episode packed with content, from action scenes to thrilling dialogue exchanges. Episodes almost always had to span the days, if not the hours, immediately following the episode before it.
Between each episode of House of the Dragon, a big leap in time has been made. Six months passed between the first and second episodes. About three years elapse between episodes two and three. A baby born in the premiere is already waddling in episode three. A trade dispute that is mentioned in passing in the first episode is sharpened in the second and closed in the third. The story moves quickly and it can be hard to tell where all the pieces are when each episode starts. There is no time card that reveals the gap between each episode, it is subtly given through contextual clues. The show certainly doesn’t have to give that information to the audience, but the fact that each episode is set in a different era than the last is a bit shocking.
Movies in a franchise have some leeway when it comes to time. Part of a long-running movie franchise can take place years after the last or carry the momentum of the last moments. Time jumps between seasons of television are not uncommon. The show goes off on a major cliffhanger for a while, and the audience is primed for a new experience when it comes back. Anime loves a good time skip, it’s a chance to age all of its characters a few years and give them all new powers and outfits. Regular prestige television jumping several years between weekly episodes is somewhat unheard of. Elements of the series feel like they are set in the margins, while others take up large chunks of screen time. It is interesting to imagine how Game of Thrones could handle the same material in its early seasons. The big difference is in the formats of the two shows.
Game of Thrones covered events in near real-time, only cut away from one perspective to show off another. The camera leaves the wall to check in Joffrey, then moves on to see what Stannis is doing, and so on. Most of the major events in the series take place simultaneously, they are best represented by a world map with all the relevant armies and characters labeled. Meanwhile, the flow of events in House of the Dragon follows a more linear structure. It’s not so concerned about multiple camps moving at the same time. Instead, it’s spent the first three episodes exploring the life and times of one family, spanning years of new developments. The focus has shifted drastically. There are fewer central characters, meaning the few that are there get more focus. On the other hand, the series seems determined to cover a lot more information than its predecessor in less time.
House of the Dragon has already been renewed for a second season. The first will have ten episodes, the length of the second season is not yet known. It’s very likely that the time that elapses between episodes will gradually decrease as the season progresses, but there will almost certainly be more sharp increases. The series aims to tell the story of House Targaryen’s fall from the lords of the realm to the pitiful state they find themselves in. Game of Thrones. There’s still a lot to do in that story, some of which will likely require even bigger jumps in the timeline. The baby born in the premiere is likely to become a man and father an heir. The story certainly isn’t dragging, but the pace might leave some viewers behind. Some fans gave the original Game of Thrones trouble because it’s hard to follow, but misses a few minutes House of the Dragon could leave a fan completely lost.
House of the Dragon probably won’t slow down, but most fans find it perfectly exciting in its current form. Jumping forward in time has the potential to leave interesting material in between episodes. Fans of the franchise don’t seem to have any trouble keeping up, but this breakneck pace can leave newcomers a little confused. Pacing is key to any story, and, as some fans found out in the series’ third installment, building something up too much can lead to disappointment. Fans will have to wait and see how House of the Dragon processes years turning into decades as the seasons progress.
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