HBO’s House of the Dragon pilot is setting up the good Game of Thrones

After eight seasons and more than a decade as a pop-culture sensation, it’s easy to forget that Game of Thrones wasn’t a surefire hit when it first arrived on HBO in 2011. With the original Lord of the Rings film trilogy firmly in the cultural rearview, and no fantasy stories rising to take its place (including the often forgotten Hobbit trilogy), it didn’t seem likely to catch on at all. But that’s not the case with HBO’s new successor show House of the Dragon. Fantasy TV has become a big business. Lord of the Rings returns and many people want to fall in love. Game of ThronesIt’s back, after its disappointing final two seasons. It is now And House of the Dragon’s pilot makes great use of its audience’s good faith.

It hopes that the franchise can look backward and move forward. House of the DragonThis prequel was created around 200 years ago, before the events that took place in Game of Thrones. This series tells the story of the Dance of the Dragons. It is essentially a Targaryen civil conflict over the succession of the Iron Throne that turned Westeros against itself.

These events comprise the second half of this book Fire & BloodGeorge R.R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire. Martin. With half a novel to come before we get all of that, House of the DragonIt still has much to do in terms of setting the tables before it can get moving. And it appears to be taking its time and getting there carefully — in fact, the pilot is basically a prequel to the prequel, set over a decade before the major fighting in the Dance of the Dragons will occur and featuring its two most important characters as teenagers rather than adults.

Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

Game of Thrones opens with an ice zombie, then slowly, step by step, introduces you to all of its main characters — some who are only around for a season and some who last the entire series. A few smart shortcuts allow viewers to have clear heroes and clear villains by the end the first episode.

For comparison: House of the Dragon’s pilot opens on a meeting about who will be king next and barely introduces anyone. The main plot is somewhat fuzzy, and it’s not clear if anyone is worth rooting for just yet — after all, Rhaenyra and Alicent won’t stay friends forever. It’s a densely packed hour that feels designed for revisiting once the season (or maybe even the series) can be watched as a whole. It’s not hard to imagine that the pilot could leave some viewers feeling a little lost. The series throws you into a sea of laws, plots, blond wigs, and complicated names, assuming that you’ll figure most of it out eventually.

However House of the DragonThis is for obsessive detail-oriented people. Game of ThronesOf course, I was a part of the creation. D.B. Weiss was concerned that it might be confusing to audiences. The showrunners cut corners, eliminating characters to save money, clarity and cost. This seemed sensible at first. But the showrunners vastly underestimated their audience, which proved disastrous later on when they were missing some of their story’s key pieces. By the time the show reached its cultural apex, even fans who had never touched Martin’s original novels had crafted elaborate theories and could tell you all about the prophecy of Azor Ahai.

Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

House of the DragonBased on the pilot, it seems to be determined not to make that error. It seems built for an audience that’s primed for complicated plots and character deep dives, and is just as committed to learning the difference between Rhaenys, Rhaenyra, and Rhaena as A Song of Ice and Fire readers have been since 1996. It’s also laying the groundwork for a very specific ending that’s already in sight thanks to Fire & BloodIt should provide the following: Thrones For fans, it gives them peace of mind moving forward.

It’s a high degree of trust to place in viewers, but that trust works both ways; viewers have to believe the series is worth their time too, and that’s one place where House of the Dragon’s pilot succeeds. House of the Dragon’s pilot is still entertaining and intriguing. It’s got the gory fights and clever conversations that made Game of Thrones’ first few seasons stand out from other shows at the time — and it’s even got a bit of the series’ trademark “sexposition,” with important character moments set amid orgies.

Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

It even proves itself to be an essential text for fans on its own, by revealing a secret about Aegon the Conqueror, one of Westeros’ most famous and important historical figures, that both viewers and readers had long wondered about but hadn’t been confirmed until now — not even in Fire & Blood. But even with all that in its favor, it’s purposefully not as quick or instantly enthralling as Game of Thrones’ debut episode was more than a decade ago.

This approach to a series’ opening episode feels like an acknowledgement that television is very different now than it was when Game of ThronesIt premiered on April 11, 2011. That show’s pilot was a million-dollar bet on an ambitious new series. House of the DragonWarnerMedia, however, has a multi-billion dollar bet on “The Complete Story” and, WarnerMedia believes, an entire world of content and spinoffs. Game of ThronesThe original purpose of, which was created to grab viewers for one episode each, and to drive HBO seasonal subscriptions, was to create a show that would be watched by a large audience. Giving the show some credit, House of the Dragon’s first episode is designed to be one part of a complete story, built to live in HBO Max’s content library forever as a brief snapshot of a fictional universe’s history.