The One Thing House of the Dragon Lacks to Beat Game of Thrones
Although both HBO TV series are based on books by George R.R. Martin (Fire & Blood and A Song of Ice and Fire) the two shows turned out to be completely different.
Can House of the Dragon actually beat Game of Thrones? To do this, House of the Dragon showrunners need to focus on one crucial thing – the scope.
The lack of scope is noticeably where the newest HBO Max show falls a bit short. While the very first few episodes of Game of Thrones introduced viewers to the plotlines developing in multiple parts of one continent as well as another plotline in a separate continent, House of the Dragon stays focused on just one plotline with Targaryens family drama at its core. Yes, it's absolutely understandable and unavoidable given the source material, so comparison might be not that fair. But still it's hard not to feel the difference.
Just think of it. House of the Dragon tells the story of seven big and powerful kingdoms, which are fighting for power and dominance. But how many battles do we see? How many locations do we travel to? Play any Episode of Season 1 and you'll be watching several characters talking to each other in the same premises of their imposing castle, King's Landing.
We will of course never know why HBO did that to us but most likely it is all about budgets. Or maybe they thought the series is about House Targaryen so the plotline should develop in King's Landing. Period.
Apart from the scope issue, the fans of the show were not happy with the pace of Season 1. Some of them find it really slow, with everything that happened in nine episodes could have been told in just three.
For others, on the contrary, Season 1 was nothing but a race against the clock.
"Why are people so impatient? Season 1 of GoT wasn't that quick paced and flashy. Throw in a bunch of war and you get Season 8. We all know how that went." – u/subhuman09
Game of Thrones has set the standard in the industry. Will House of the Dragon be able to set a new standard after all?