It’s time for House of the Dragon Episode 5 review, and I’m calling this one the wedding episode. Now we all know how weddings go in Westeros. However this one was a dull affair by Dothraki standards. Yet, that doesn’t equal a bad episode. In fact, it was excellent once again.
This will be as where possible a SPOILER FREE review. I might have to mention one or two details, but for the most part I feel like I can express my thoughts without getting into the weeds. So here we go.
Weddings In Westeros
Yup, it’s wedding time and you know what that means in Westeros, so far not a single wedding has ever happened without extreme drama in parent series Game of Thrones and here we are again. It is clear that House of the Dragon will follow this suit. However the drama is quite different this time around. I feel like the tension of all these characters with competing motives being in the one place is where this episode shines. We have a Viserys who’s getting older and sicker and as such the vultures are circling.
There is some violence in this wedding, but that’s where I use the quote above, clearly from Game of Thrones. One death, that is a dull affair in Dothraki standards after all?
However as said above that is not here this episode excels. Instead I think it’s more about the foreshadowing of what’s to come. If you don’t know the Targaryen history of the Dance of Dragons then fair play, I won’t spoil things here. However Episode 5 feels like the characters are putting the final finishing touches to the biggest powder keg ever constructed. The violence at the end was merely a false alarm rather than the feast that’s to come.
RELATED: House Of The Dragon Episode 4 Review – The Sex Episode Was Best Yet
Toussaint is again brilliant as the ageing and tired of everyone’s bullsh** King Viserys. Prince Daemon on the other hand can simply cause an uproar by walking into a room. Oh poor King Viserys. he asks his new hand how his reign will be remembered and he gets a truthful answer. However, he won’t live forever, and it’ll be his ancestors that define his reign, nit those who experienced it.
Equally even if you have read the books I commend the show for using the unreliable narrator. GRRM’s Fire and Blood is written from an in universe Maester point of view. That means not all the events will be as they were recorded. Instead with GRRM’s blessing we should think of House of the Dragon as the real way those events played out, not how they were recorded after the fact. Thus death’s little details, and motivations are changed.
Luckily ASOIAF fans seems to understand this and accept it. Sadly, Tolkien fans think his work should never be changed. Of course the majority of the critics probably don’t even realize that Tolkien’s work was also written from the point of view of a narrator of history. A shame, because both these big fantasy shows are playing with established expectations and filling in lots of blanks. Additionally, in my opinion. both are providing great entertainment
Criticisms
Personally I have none. I don’t think that it was quite as powerful to me as Episode 4 was, but this was great in a different way. I will say that some fans who are all about the sex and violence may be slightly bored this week. The episode is book-ended by two very shocking events, but only one of them lives up to Thrones standards in the shock stakes. However the tension in between these bookends is where I felt the love this week and for some that might be a little too dull. I assume those kind of fans are Dothraki, but hey I’m not prejudiced against a fictional race of humans.
That was not me this week, but it might be you, so as such, see how you feel yourself.
My only worry with this show, and it’s bee n there since before the premiere, is whether they can keep the excitement going? For all its shocks and political machinations, Game of Thrones also had geek out moments. The birth of the dragons, the freeing of the slaves and them raising Daenerys. Then from Jon’s angle we had his resurrection, his promotion to Lord Commander, his escape at Hardhome etc. So far I think House of the Dragon hasn’t given us many heroes. I wonder how this will be handled going forward, knowing the end result as we do?
When the Time Jumps?
We know we have to get some huge time jumps in Season 1, so far the furthest we have jumped is 3 years. However by the end of the season we have a different actress playing Rhaenyra. I’m kinda intrigued to get to this point because some of the key players we know are coming are a bit to young to have any screen time yet.
Once King Viserys eventually passes on, the poop is really going to hit the fan. Maybe I’m being impatient, but I hope that happens next week. I’ll be sad to see some actors move on, but that’s just the story being told.
Overall, I’m very happy so far with House of the Dragon Season 1, and Episode 5 was another stellar entry.
GRADE: A
What did you think of my House of the Dragon Episode 5 review? What did you think of the wedding episode itself? Leave your own review below if you can and let us know what you think. There’s space below if you can.
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