House of the Dragon on Hotstar Season 1 review: Game of Thrones prequel finds its own footing and flies higher than expected

Ever since the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon was announced (in the wake of a series finale that divided the world), it was very natural for the viewers to have their fears. Some were hyped enough to lap up anything with author George RR Martin’s name on it (the series is based on his novel Fire and Blood) while others questioned if anyone even asked for this HBO’s money-making exercise. 

All fears aside, it was certain that even the cynics would watch House of the Dragon once it drops on streaming platforms. After ten excruciating weeks, numerous time jumps, and the recasting of its two female leads, House of the Dragon’s debut season has finally come to a close. 

Thankfully, the series apes the first season of its predecessor instead of the messy final one. Some might even argue that House of the Dragon has had a stronger debut than Game of Thrones! As you can read in our review of the pilot episode, it is true that the first few episodes made it tough for viewers to look at HoD in its own light. 

Right from the subtle references to the future depicted in Game of Thrones to the opening music literally being the same GoT theme by Ramin Djawidi that we are so used to hearing, the show just seemed to appear as “Game of Thrones 2.0”. There were melodramatic performances, Shakespearean conspiracies for the Iron Throne, unexpected bloody deaths, and of course, a whole lot of CGI dragons. But thankfully, by Monday’s finale, HoD seems to have come out of the shadow of GoT. 

Ever since the Ned Stark-like king Viserys (played by a terrific and emotional Paddy Considine) died in the last episode, his wife Queen Alicient Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and daughter Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) continue their cold war to lay a claim on the Iron Throne. Given the setting, this is of course, a heavily patriarchal society with these two kingmakers fighting for the sake of their sons, spoilt underage brats who don’t have a clue about administration. 

The power play has become quite interesting in this final episode particularly with each of the two sides ready to consciously or unconsciously inflict violence upon each other. Viserys staying alive still ensured some peace but with his demise, the possibilities of an exciting all-out war (complete with aerial dragon firefights) are on the rise. Obviously, the finale just teases such a possibility and we must wait another year for some battle action of a scale comparable to the Battle of the Bastards or the Battle of Blackwater. But the excitement has been created and that’s what matters for now. 

It is amusing to see how the once-best friends Alicient and Rhaeneyra are now ready to strike each other down, all because of the worst enemy in the Westerosi universe: family. While the young stars playing the two characters in the first five episodes had definitely drawn the attention of viewers, both Cooke and D’Arcy add a much-needed nuance and maturity to show how their characters are pressured by their familial loyalties. 

With the finale’s title “The Black Queen” alluding to Rhaenyra, there are hints of the usually strategic Princess turning into a more aggressive Queen Mother. Now, where have we seen such a character evolution before? Now, when the morally just dragon queen Daenerys Targaryen transformed into the so-called “Mad Queen” all of a sudden in GoT’s highly polarizing penultimate episode “The Bells”, viewers were taken aback by how rushed and rather random such a change felt.

Fortunately, the same mistake is not being repeated in HoD with emotionally-driven contexts being offered by the writers to understand what drives Daenyrs’s ancestor Rhaeneyra down a path of rage. This is particularly true in the very final frame of the episode that finds her standing in front of a fireplace only to turn towards the camera, a frown plastered on her face with the faint moisture of tear dripping down an eye.

But obviously when we talk in the sense, just like GoT, HoD has its fair share of excesses, chiefly sex and blood. But as we mentioned in our mid-season review, the sex scenes still seem to be directed in a more sensitive manner highlighting the female gaze too at times as opposed to the near-porn-like sequences from GOT. The bloodshed is justified and while the first episode’s shockingly long and graphic childbirth scene was rightfully praised, this season seems to go overboard with childbirth scenes to the point of being overkill.

There is a character who kills herself after a miscarriage, Rhaenyra herself bleeds excessively while walking after giving birth, and the finale too features yet another graphic scene ending with a stillborn. While the focus on the tragic aspects of pregnancy is indeed useful for destigmatising the concept of pregnancy itself on mainstream television, an excess of it might just defeat the purpose. 

Pickier viewers would also be bothered by the lighting in some scenes, an issue that many even had with the famous Winterfell episode of GoT’s last season. It is understandable that HoD is a dark show set in some dim-lit stone castles but just a little more light would not hurt the eyes. Pro tip while watching the show: Keep the brightness to the fullest!

All in all, House of the Dragon’s satisfying finale ends on a good cliffhanger and is enough to create interest for the sophomore season. It definitely has the potential to be a majestic epic in its own right. Here’s hoping that it also breaks the “final season curse” established by its predecessor!

We’re going with 3.5 out of 5 stars for House of the Dragon.

House of the Dragon is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.