House of the Dragon (S2:E1 – A Son for a Son)

Set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, season 2 of House of the Dragon picks up days after the conclusion of Season 1. Westeros is on the verge of war as the already cloven royal family reals in the aftermath of Prince Luke’s death at the hand of his cousin Aemond. Unwilling to forego vengeance, will Queen Rhaenyra’s next actions set the whole of the country in dragon flames?

House of the Dragon (S2:E1 – A Son for a Son) Review

Season one of the series was already at a disadvantage when compared to the electrifying early seasons of GOT. However, it quickly found its own voice, distinguishing itself as a more deliberately paced affair far more interested in political intrigue than in being an epic adventure with global repercussions.

Episode 1 of this season continues the trend even though it also sets the groundwork for what look to be set pieces to rival the scope, if not the emotional connection of Game of Thrones. And that’s really where this episode suffers the most: a lack of emotional connection.

Unhelped by the two-year gap between seasons 1 & 2, A Son for a Son doesn’t possess the same connective tissue as even some of the weakest episodes of its older brother. Its characters seem to blend together with names that are even more similar and indistinguishable from one another than they are.

All in all, the somewhat slowly-paced episode 1 of season 2 of House of the Dragon is held together by good performances and promise.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Oh, Varys

• Game of Thrones had no shortage of strong women in leadership roles. However,  unlike Daenerys and Sansa, who went through hell only to gain power organically, or Cersei, who schemed and connived her way to power and ultimately ruin, the leading ladies of House of Dragon wield power much more like their male counterparts. Furthermore, the competence scale has significantly tipped in their direction.
  • With all of his flaws, even after losing his hand, Jaime Lannister’s character arc was both that of finding redemption and, once again, becoming competent. Season 2 of HOTD seems to be setting the stage to make the men more or less irrelevant.
  • It’s fairly subtle at this point, and I might be wrong about the show’s trajectory, but I doubt it.

House of the Dragon (S2:E2 – Rhaenrya the Cruel)

The drama continues as the consequences of Daemon’s impetuousness begin to bear poisoned fruit. The Red Keep is in turmoil, the king is furious, and war is inevitable.

House of the Dragon (S2:E2 – Rhaenrya the Cruel) Review

Rhaenrya the Cruel is another perfectly satisfactory entry into the series. The performances are consistently fantastic, and the dialogue is better than almost anything else out there right now. However, the show still hasn’t reached GOT’s intrigue or on-the-edge-of-your-seat thrillingness. Instead, it continues to give off a very soap opera-like vibe, though with infinitely better script, performances, and production value.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Floppy Wieners

• I’m all for the franchise’s complete omission of gratuitous nudity. It added nothing to the original series and served as little more than cheap titillation. However, while this series shows a marked reduction, they make a concerted effort to hide female nudity without the same consideration for the men. Don’t get me wrong, junk isn’t spinning in the wind in scene after scene, but they will show completely naked men (junk hidden) while giving half-ass-crack shots to women playing dancing whores. It’s not an accident.

Geography Schmeography

• One of the things that gave the original such a wonderful sense of scope was its clearly defined geography, as shown by clear racial and cultural divides. You know, like the totality of human existence was before cheap and easy mass transit was a thing. Heck, have you been to modern-day Japan or Norway? They’re filled with Japanese and Norwegians.

House of the Dragon (S2:E3-E8)

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The Wingfeather Saga (Season 2)

The Wingfeather children—Janner, Kalmar, and Leeli—once believed they were ordinary kids. Little did they know, they carried a regal lineage: they were the Jewels of Anniera, heirs to a distant and fallen kingdom. Now, their lives are in peril as the evil Fangs seek to capture them. They must flee their familiar home, navigating treacherous Fingap Falls, twisting Strander Burrows, and the Fang-infested Dugtown. Their destination? The Ice Prairies, where the lizard-like Fangs cannot pursue. The fate of their family, and perhaps the entire realm, rests upon their young shoulders. As the second season unfolds, the world of Wingfeather expands, introducing new dangers, uncharted lands, and friendships forged in hope.

The Wingfeather Saga (S2:E1&2)

With subtle improvements to the animation, the second season of The Wingfeather Saga remains one of the most beautifully rendered animated series of the last 20+ years, with only 2001’s Samurai Jack’s unique aesthetic as serious competition. Unlike Disney’s lazy and sometimes jarring attempt to do the same with the disappointing Wish, the TWS animators have seamlessly integrated the timeless elegance and fluid motion of classic 2D animation into the more immersive and textured environments of 3D CGI.

One of our early expressed concerns with season 1 was that the voice talent, specifically that of the children, had room to grow. That fear has been allayed as the child actors exhibit vastly more confident and nuanced performances, elevating the show’s overall quality.

Unfortunately, these initial episodes sometimes suffer from the same uneven pacing and tendency to say rather than do that hampered a handful of last season’s entries. The writers certainly manage to include some particularly heavy and narratively important events. Still, they are regrettably interspersed with what feels like time-filler side adventures that are wrapped up as quickly and conveniently as they were initiated. The result is a lack of urgency in some key moments that will temporarily take older viewers out of the action.

That said, the strong family dynamic, traditional gender roles, intriguing characters, and overarching adventure are interesting enough to keep children engrossed and parents sufficiently entertained. Furthermore, season 1 should have garnered enough goodwill to keep families coming back for when this series inevitably finds its footing once again.

INAPPROPRIATE ELEMENTS FOR CHILDREN

Consequences

• One of the great things about The Wingfeather Saga series is that it doesn’t shy away from consequences. The other side of this is that it makes for some intense moments that may be too much for the very young.
• Numerous villains are felled, some on screen and some off. However, all are serious and intense, though not graphic.
  • There is one scene in which one of the Wingfeathers celebrates as the youngest boy kills multiple attackers with his bow and arrows, and we even see some of them taking arrows to the heart and falling to their deaths.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Eurocentric Middle Age-Inspired Story

• Obviously, we are dealing with a completely fictional story set in a fantasy realm that is full of things that don’t exist in the real world. However, there is no denying that it is almost exclusively based on the Tolkien model of fantasy in which Eurocentric communities are isolated by geography and the incredible dangers and effort involved with adventurous treks across the land. As such, it makes very little sense for black characters to live in the same village in which the show starts. It’s not a huge deal but it is distracting to those audience members who appreciate continuity and verisimilitude (even in fantasy).
  • On a side note, every other human is drawn wearing something anachronistically relevant to the setting except for the male black character. For some reason, he’s dressed in slacks and a cardigan sweater, making it look like Mr. Rogers dressed him.

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