House of the Dragon 2 | War of dragons, houses and names

There is Rhaenys, Rhaenyra, Rhaena and Rhea. There is Daemon, Aemond and Aegon II (because there have been and will be other Aegons). There is Baelon, Baelor and Baela. Not to mention Jacaerys, Jaehaerys and Jaehaera.

To add to the confusion, several of the characters in the teeming series House of the Dragondescendants of the Targaryen dynasty, wear long, peroxide-blonde wigs, tied in pigtails or braids. Their silver hair looks similar, as do their names. And mothers on the continent of Westeros often look the same age as their adult children.

In short, it can get confusing and require some tricks to untangle these “highborn” nobles, who do not deny incest or bloody battle planning around a huge wooden Risk game, all while speaking High Valyrian.

First, Aemond has one eye gouged out. Aegon II is the usurper king married to his own sister Helaena. Daemon married his niece Rhaenyra, who was the eldest daughter of his older brother Viserys, the last king of the Seven Kingdoms.

Is it clearer? It doesn’t matter. When you enter House of the Dragon (The Dragon House), offered on the Crave platform, we accept not to understand everything at first. We also resign ourselves to interspersing our viewing with numerous consultations of the Wikipedia pages of the Targaryen, Hightower or Velaryon families. That’s how it is, between King’s Landing and Dragonstone.

The second season of House of the Dragonof which four of the eight episodes are currently online, in French and English, promises to be more exciting and effective than the first, released almost two years ago.

In a quick summary, civil war – and internal war – will break out in the kingdom and destroy the strength of the Targaryen family, the one that rides the dragons, the most devastating weapon in this complex universe created by George RR Martin. Rhaenyra, legitimate heir to the Crown, and her half-brother Aegon, who stole the title from her, will atomize each other with the fire of their dragons as well as several conspiracies.

Rhaenyra represents the black faction and Aegon leads the green troops.

To the Oppenheimerboth superpowers have the equivalent of an atomic bomb, which flies and spits columns of flame.

In order to prevent the destruction of civilization, Rhaenyra will extend an olive branch to Alicent Hightower, the mother of her cruel and untimely rival, Aegon. Once, Rhaenyra and Alicent were the best of friends, before becoming sworn enemies, separated by strategic alliances.

Alicent, who had four children with Rhaenyra’s father, refused the peace pact, which culminates in a particularly belligerent and murderous fourth episode. As in Game Of Thronesthere is no point in getting attached to the protagonists of House of the Dragonalways one bad hairpiece away from being carbonized or decapitated.

Well, well, I know very well that the uninitiated of House of the Dragon find the vocabulary associated with this ambitious and dense series super hermetic and ridiculous. Lord Suzerain, Sir Machin, Your Majesty, Master Whisperer, it’s heavy. And I understand. I resisted the films for a long time Dune by Denis Villeneuve for the same reasons.

Too nerdy, too complicated, too weird, I read my colleagues’ enthusiastic reviews and rolled my eyes at the words Bene Gesserit, Arakis, and Fremen. What’s that? And why all these invented languages? This isn’t a 1990s Cirque du Soleil show, after all.

I was so wrong. I loved it Dunewhich takes place in a neo-feudal world similar to that of House of the Dragonbut transposed in space.

In both works, which are derived from popular books and which engage every one of our neurons, aristocratic families clash to control their universe. The basics, in other words.

Less calm, the plot of House of the Dragon 2 takes place approximately 180 years before that of Game Of Thrones and it is no longer scattered to the four corners of the vast world map, which sometimes lost us between Harrenhal and Duskenval.

The creators of House of the Dragon also toned down the explicit sex scenes, which didn’t really add to the story. There are still some, of course, because this fantasy saga is rooted in power and politics, which are often traded in sex and money.

Even more than in Game Of Throneswomen have been screwed into the heart of the narrative of House of the Dragon. The moderate Rhaenyra and her violent uncle-husband Daemon want to avenge the death of their son Lucerys, killed by the dragon of Aemond (the one with the pirate’s eye, we remain attentive).

Their main adversary, the Dowager Queen Alicent, is having a hard time with her elder brother Aegon, ready to unleash hostilities over peccadilloes. But she is cunning, this Alicent. Her father, the excellent strategist Otto Hightower, gives her some judicious advice.

What is most annoying in House of the Dragonit’s the dragon scenes. There are a lot of them and they’re not all successful, let’s say it. The special effects don’t impress as much as the gigantic ground battles that made fans of Game Of Thrones.

If only these dragons could burn the Targaryen’s ugly white wigs, that would be a positive for them. But no. They’re on, like Christiane Germain and George Karam, in a Radio-Canada business reality show.