Summary: The Great Council of 101 sees a vote happen where Viserys is selected to be the next king over Rhaenys. 11 years later, Viserys is king during a peaceful time, and his daughter Rhaenyra rides a dragon. He has a small council meeting where everyone discusses an upcoming tourney to celebrate the birth of what will hopefully be his first son. Viserys' brother Daemon returns to the Red Keep where he meets with Rhaenyra. That night, Daemon has his Gold Cloaks maim and murder criminals to send a message. At a small council meeting the next day, Otto Hightower, the Hand of the King, is furious about this, but Viserys lets it slide. At the tourney, Daemon dominates but is eventually beaten by a newcomer Criston Cole. Viserys' wife Aemma goes into labour but she and the baby die in childbirth. Viserys is stricken by this. Otto tries to suggest naming Rhaenyra as heir ahead of Daemon the next day, but Viserys won't have it. That night, Otto sends his daughter Alicent to comfort the king. Daemon celebrates with his God Cloaks at a whorehouse and makes a toast to the King's late son. Otto spins the story out of proportion to make Daemon look bad, so Viserys exiles him from King's Landing. He names Rhaenyra as his new heir and tells her of a Targaryen secret: they need to unite the realm to prepare for the end of the world. Lords gather at King's Landing to recognize Rhaenyra as the new heir.
The Good: Before I start this review, I want to mention that I have read the source material for this show, George R.R. Martin's Targaryen history book "Fire and Blood". As such, I am vastly knowledgeable in the characters and plot, and while I will not mention any spoilers in my reviews, I won't be able to accurately convey how this show will feel for someone who is dipping their toes into this era of Westerosi history for the first time. I may also have a bit of bias as a fan of the series, but I will do my best to not let that factor into my opinion of this show. With that established, let's talk about this first episode. It feels good to be back in Westeros. Rather, it feels good to be back in a Westeros where the story feels like it matters again. It's still early days, but this episode was written refreshingly well. No armies regenerate at will, no characters teleport at will, no awful dialogue slashes at the immersion, and characters are no longer behaving in ways that are at odds with what is established. After struggling through seasons 5-8 of "Game of Thrones" where the writing got gradually worse over time, it's nice to see that there is care taken to present the events of this show through carefully written interactions instead of needless dramatic spectacle. I hope that this first episode is a sign of things to come because the quality of the writing is a very encouraging sign. The production value is equally impressive, and I was wowed by every aspect of this show. Visually, this was phenomenal. Not only is there excellent CGI, but everything else is simply magnificent. This episode has a consistent use of sweeping camera shots, which help realize this fantasy world on an epic scale, similar to how "Lord of the Rings" created the spectacle of Middle-Earth. The dynamic camera throughout the episode is fantastic. Aiding this is the magnificent set design. Locations like King's Landing, the tourney grounds, and the Red Keep are brought to life with excellent physical sets that look and feel like they are a real place in Westeros. Just compare the tourney in this episode to the one from the first season of "Game of Thrones". It is so much grander in scale and feels like a much larger event, which is how a King's tourney should be. Seeing the high budget of the show spent wisely was great. Plus, it's so good to see so much love put into the world-building, which is something that "Game of Thrones" got worse at as it went along, getting too fixated on the action and surprise twists. Another aspect of production that was spectacular was the costume design. These characters look great (the wigs aren't nearly as bad as some people are making them out to be), and their outfits and armour have that extra bit of detail-oriented care put into them. Of course everyone will be asking about the dragons, and they look quite good. We meet two dragons, Syrax and Caraxes, in this episode and they look and feel very distinct from each other. The show wisely doesn't shove dragons in our face for a whole hour and chooses to focus on the story instead, and the few scenes we have with them are quite good. The characters that we are introduced to are pretty interesting. They are all immediately portrayed as grey characters, which is an ambitious approach that has its ups and downs (see: The Bad). The positive aspect is that grey characters are much more realistic and interesting, so just about every character has piqued my interest throughout this episode. The stand-out character for me was King Viserys, who was a fresh and gripping take on a King, different from what we have seen in "Game of Thrones". Paddy Considine puts in a fantastic performance, and he makes it easy to connect with this man in spite of him having so much more power than anyone else watching this episode. Viserys is portrayed as a kind-hearted, peace-loving king and a lot of the situations he is thrust into are genuinely tough moral dilemmas (allowing his wife to be cut open, choosing between Daemon and Rhaenyra). It's so easy to feel bad for the character and sympathize with the responsibility on his shoulders. However, the character is clearly portrayed as grey because, despite all of his upside, he did ultimately lead his wife to her death by forcing pregnancy after pregnancy onto her in a desperate attempt to produce a male heir. Two other stand-out characters for me were Daemon and Otto. I'll start with Daemon, who is the more exciting character so far. He is portrayed as an uncontrollable, ambitious rogue that does terrible things. At least that is our first impression of him. His first scene sees him sitting on the iron throne, immediately introducing us to his ambition, and his second scene sees him enforcing an extreme level of brutality on criminals, rounding them up and hacking off their parts in a horrifyingly violent scene. Add on his cocksure arrogance in the tourney and Daemon immediately comes off as a power-hungry villain, one who will most certainly be a problem going forwards. To contrast him we have the Hand of the King, Otto Hightower. Otto seems like a reasonable and honourable man at the start of the episode, offering his counsel to the king and opposing the loose cannon Daemon at every turn. Otto comes off as initially likeable since Daemon is the one who provokes him often, and we get a few delightful scenes as Daemon slyly jousts against Otto's son and gets the favour of his daughter. Daemon's arrogance makes it easier to relate with Otto, who at this point has not done anything to make us dislike him. One thing that this episode does really well is that it turns our initial perception of these two characters on its head as it goes on. Daemon starts off utterly despicable, but as the episode goes on, we get more dimension to him. We see that he genuinely does care about his family, evidenced by his softness with Rhaenyra, and a surprisingly melancholy toast to the King's lost son at the whorehouse. Furthermore, Daemon gives a surprisingly reasonable justification for his brutality in this episode, bringing up that he needed to ensure the protection of the nobles in the city, and bringing up that the innocents have felt that laws aren't enforced enough within the city. And as we begin to see this softer and more reasonable side of Daemon, we see a more malicious side of Otto. Later in the episode, Daemon accuses Otto of being a power-hungry, manipulative threat, and some of Otto's actions justify this. Otto obviously hates Daemon, and we see him take action against him. Daemon gets banished by Viserys in an excellent scene (see: Best Moment), and this was all Otto's doing. To turn Viserys on his brother, Otto takes a report about Daemon and completely blows it out of proportion to get Viserys to exile Daemon. A melancholy toast was interpreted to the king as a roaring celebration by Daemon, showing us Otto scheming to get what he wants. More disgustingly, Otto also sends his own daughter Alicent to "comfort" the king in his time of need. It sounds innocent enough, but the underlying intent from Otto is blatantly clear: he wants Alicent to get intimate with the king, just one day after the death of his wife. I was surprised by how my opinions on these characters changed as the episode went on. Both characters are completely correct in their negative judgement of the other, and I'm intrigued to see where this conflict goes and which side I ultimately take. I was pleased to see some quality small council scenes once again. It's fun to see the characters discussing the happenings in the realm, and we get a good idea of who these people are. Outside of Viserys, Daemon, and Otto, there are a few other characters we meet here. Corlys Velaryon is intriguing from the start. Married to "The Queen Who Never Was" Rhaenys, it's curious to see who Corlys supports in an attempt to eke out what his motives are. So far, Corlys seems to side with Daemon, and is treated as something of an outsider at the small council. Few people take his concerns seriously, and he is mocked whenever possible. Though the show hasn't revealed much about Corlys, I really like this detail since Corlys is a wealthy self-made man in a world where such a thing should not be possible. It's sensible that people don't like him and what he stands for as a result. We also meet Grand Maester Mellos, who is consistently backing Otto's views. Lastly there is Lord Beesbury and Lyonel Strong, both of whom are given few chances to speak and as such we don't get much about them. I'm interested in the characters that we have seen so far, and I want to learn more about them. It seems inevitable that at least one or two of these people will be furthering their own agendas behind the scenes. Lastly, this episode does a great job at showing us action and dramatic scenes. Hosting a tourney was smart because it gives us some engaging action through the jousting, climaxing in an engaging fight between Daemon and Criston. I really like that this action scene was edits alongside Aemma's pregnancy, calling back on her comment that giving birth is a woman's battlefield. Speaking of, Aemma's death was deeply disturbing and harrowing. The episode does not shy away from the brutality of her death, making everything wrong with Westerosi society explicitly clear to us. This deeply sad and disturbing scene in this first episode serves as a hook to promise to the viewers that this show is capable of making us feel intense emotions. The Bad: The problem with having so many grey characters is that it's entirely feasible that we don't connect with any of the characters while watching this first episode. Layered characters are fascinating, but in order for us to find the greyness fascinating, we need to invest in the characters and story first. By having everyone be so morally murky right from the onset, it's tougher to get emotionally invested. Over time we might get to a good level of emotional investment, but it's always better to get the audience invested first and reveal the layers within the characters afterwards. This episode doesn't do this, and it suffers as a result. I liked Milly Alcock's performance as Rhaenyra and found her interesting. I think that she's the most easily likeable character in the show so far since she hasn't been presented with any major character flaws. But I was vastly disappointed with how little of this episode focused on her. This is especially true with Aemma's death. We spend a good amount of time with Viserys following her death, but Rhaenyra isn't given the same amount of personal emotional connection. We get a suggestion that she harnesses some bitterness towards Viserys for pushing her mother to her death, but it's never explored or brought up again, which I thought was a shame since it was an original idea to explore. Overall, I wish that Rhaenyra was given more focus in this first episode, so that her plight could be better fleshed out and more emotionally resonant. Similar to "Game of Thrones" season 1, we are never given any rules for the tourney, which makes it shocking when some brutal events happen and nobody does anything. Surely Daemon isn't allowed to attack Gwayne Hightower's horse like that during the joust? But nobody does anything, so I suppose it is legal? We aren't given any hint of if this is legal or not, and that makes the moment more frustrating than dramatic. Furthermore, I was horrified when the tourney suddenly turned towards the violent with knights and nobles actively murdering each other in a brutal melee. This is way too over the top! How is this allowed at a tourney? Is it seriously legal to kill whoever you want? I was left so confused on the rules, and I was frustrated by the show's lack of an explanation. I suppose you can say that Daemon gets extra rope since he's the King's brother and that the violence maybe only happened since Viserys was absent. But these explanations feel half-assed, and it doesn't change the fact that the show did not make any of this clear. Viserys' big reveal on Aegon's motivations was a good surprise, and as a book reader, this is a huge reveal that has tons of implications (see: The Unknown). But in the canon of this universe, this reveal falls flat because of how bad and anticlimactic the long night ultimately was in season 8 of "Game of Thrones". Instead of being a big reveal, calling back to such a disappointing moment from "Game of Thrones" encourages a reminder of disappointment and anger. It's a shame that this first episode chose to associate itself with those emotions from the final season of "Game of Thrones". I found the opening scene to be disappointing, especially with how "Game of Thrones" started. The nuances of the Great Council of 101 as well as its implications on Westerosi law were not explored at all. This is egregious considering how monumental this event was for setting a precedent for succession. Instead, the Great Council isn't even mentioned after that opening scene, making it feel somewhat pointless. The narration was cheesy and unsubtle, which is out of character for this show. The Unknown: The reveal of Aegon's dragon dream is quite substantial. We know that Daenerys does not have this information, so when in the Targeryen lineage did this information get lost? What is the significance of the information being lost? This reveal also goes a long way towards explaining Rhaegar's strange behaviour in the books. It is well known that Rhaegar was a bookish boy until one day he decided that he has to become a warrior. It seems increasingly likely that the reason behind this change, and for his perplexing actions that kicked off Robert's Rebellion, were due to his knowledge of this prophetic dream. I'm sure Daemon will be back in King's Landing eventually, but how long will it be until he returns? Will he actually go back to The Vale, or does he have another destination in mind? Also, what are Daemon's ambitions? Does he want to take the throne for himself? What is his plan to pull this off? How about Otto? What are his ambitions? What motivates him? Is he trying to get Alicent to connect with the King? Does he want her to become a Queen? Is he as duplicitous and self-motivated as Daemon suggests? Viserys has a pretty nasty looking wound from the throne. Will this be a problem going forwards? Considering that this is a succession story, I imagine Viserys will have to die at some point for the conflict to really take off. What will be the general reaction to Rhaenyra being named heir? Will this go down well with the lords? Or will they object to there being a female heir? Will Rhaenys support Rhaenyra, or will she be bitter over being passed over only to see a different woman given the throne? Best Moment: Viserys banishing Daemon was a magnificent moment, with great performances from both. Daemon could have defended his actions better, but you get the sense that he is disappointed that Viserys let himself be manipulated by Otto. Instead, Daemon takes the chance to let out ten years of frustration on a brother who already feels betrayed and heartbroken by Daemon's lavish, uncaring actions. Both actors do brilliantly, and the scene closes in a wonderfully ominous way with Viserys cutting himself on the throne, suggesting that he has just made a big mistake. Character of the Episode: Viserys. Conclusion: This was a good first episode. The return to Westeros was done really well and I'm intrigued by the story and its characters. As a hook for the rest of the series, this episode more than did its job, and provided some quality entertainment as well. There were a couple of issues, but thankfully nothing that ruined the episode. I can safely say now that I am excited for this show. Score: 65
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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