HBO’s House of the Dragon has only launched its pivotal first episode, marking the end of the hiatus left in the aftermath of its predecessor, and the series is already at the vanguard of audience criticism and outcry. To say that House of the Dragon (which people had their doubts about) has thus already proved itself as a legitimate successor of the viscerally graphic and spontaneously violent cinematography of Game of Thrones will be a statement worth repeating.
House of the Dragon Receives Its First Mass Furore
The prequel series of Game of Thrones had been in the works at HBO for quite a considerable amount of time and it has spent almost equally as much suffering the brunt of public qualms about whether it would be able to live up to the expectations of the anticipating mass collective. Its parent series, although unequivocally regarded as a phenomenon unprecedented in the history of television, had happened upon a snag during its last run, incurring the deserved wrath of its loyal audience.
With time, some legacies don’t change as House of the Dragon too follows in the footsteps of its parent and delivers an episode that has shaken up the hibernating emotions of the GoT scions. The scene which features a rather disturbing childbirth scene (to put it mildly) had failed to be prefixed with the appropriate trigger warning, ultimately leading to the current vociferation of the crowd about the use and inclusion of a formal message highlighting an episode containing a potentially disturbing scene.
George RR Martin Responds To the Recent Public Outcry
The author and creator of A Song of Ice and Fire (inspiration of Game of Thrones) and Fire and Blood (from which House of the Dragon is adapted), George RR Martin has spoken out about the necessity of the inclusion of the triggering scene of the series’s first episode titled, Heir of the Dragon.
“That scene is…you don’t want to use the word ‘enjoyable’ for a scene like that, but it’s incredibly powerful,” Martin said. “It’s visceral and it’ll rip your heart out and throw it on the floor. It has the kind of impact that the Red Wedding had. It’s a beautifully done scene of something horrible.”
Series showrunner Miguel Sapochnik, too, shared a similar view as he stated, “You can’t ignore the violence that was perpetrated on women by men in that time. It shouldn’t be downplayed and it shouldn’t be glorified. If anything, we’re going to shine a light on that aspect.” Whether that serves as a warning of the purported avalanche to come will have to be deciphered in the coming episodes of the prequel saga.
House of the Dragon is now streaming on HBO and HBO Max.
Source: CBR
