| "The Heirs of the Dragon" | |
|---|---|
| House of the Dragon episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 1 |
| Directed by | Miguel Sapochnik |
| Written by | Ryan Condal |
| Featured music | Ramin Djawadi |
| Cinematography by | Fabian Wagner |
| Editing by | Tim Porter |
| Original air date | August 21, 2022 |
| Running time | 66 minutes |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
"The Heirs of the Dragon" is the series premiere of the HBO fantasy drama television series House of the Dragon. The first episode of the first season was written by series co-creator Ryan Condal, in an adaptation of the second half of George R. R. Martin's novel Fire & Blood. The episode was directed by Miguel Sapochnik.
As the first episode of the series, it introduces the setting and the main characters of the show.
In 101 AC,[a] King Jaehaerys I Targaryen (Michael Carter) convenes a Great Council to avoid civil war. While Viserys (Paddy Considine), his oldest grandson, is named heir, several lords still support Rhaenys (Eve Best), his older granddaughter.
Nine years into his reign, Viserys's wife, Queen Aemma Arryn (Sian Brooke), is pregnant with what he is sure will be a son. Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), Hand of the King, insists Prince Daemon (Matt Smith), Viserys's brother and Commander of the City Watch, return to his wife. Viserys refuses.
At a jousting tournament, Viserys's daughter, Princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), and Otto's daughter, Lady Alicent (Emily Carey), are intrigued by Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), a common-born Dornish knight who beats Daemon. Meanwhile, Aemma experiences a troubled labour. Viserys has Grand Maester Mellos (David Horovitch) perform a caesarean section, but both Aemma and the child, Baelon, die.
Otto informs the Small Council that, while at a brothel, Daemon toasted Baelon, styling him "The Heir for a Day." Viserys removes Daemon from the line of succession, banishing him to the Vale. After naming Rhaenyra his heir, he tells her Aegon the Conqueror dreamed of a threat from the North Westeros can only defeat if a Targaryen sits on the Iron Throne.
As the lords of Westeros swear fealty to Rhaenyra, Daemon and his lover Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) leave atop his dragon, Caraxes.
"The Heirs of the Dragon" had 9.99 million viewers, which made it the biggest series premiere for HBO.[1] The size of the audience caused HBO Max in the US and Crave in Canada to crash for some users.[2] Downdetector reported 3700 instances of the application not responding.[2] HBO said the viewership represented the largest single-day viewership for a series debut in HBO Max's history.[3] This claim has not been verified by a third party such as Nielsen, which only tabulates viewership for HBO's linear channel. On August 26, it was mentioned by HBO that the view number has risen to 20 million across the United States.[4]
In the United Kingdom, the episode was watched by 1.39 million on Sky Atlantic and became the biggest drama launch ever on Sky.[5]
The episode received highly positive critical reviews. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the episode received an approval rating of 85% based on 127 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critical consensus said, "Bearing the weight of a hallowed TV lineage, "The Heirs of the Dragon" won't fully fire viewers up for another game of thrones, but solidly sets the board with plenty of blood."[6]
Writing for IGN, Helen O'Hara gave the premiere episode a rating of 8 out of 10 and said, "House of the Dragon's premiere marks a strong, well-cast start to the Game of Thrones spin-off. This feels very close to its predecessor in tone and content, but immediately establishes a struggle for power around an amiable, weak-willed king, and vivid new characters to fight those battles."[7] Alec Bojalad of Den of Geek gave it a four out of five stars and deemed it as "in many ways better [than 'Winter Is Coming'] as it's a far more focused experience," and further praised the acting (particularly Smith's) and the jousting scenes.[8] Rebecca Nicholson of The Guardian, in her review for the first six episodes, called the first episode "spectacular" and that "it rattles through everything that made its predecessor, Game of Thrones, such a titan of the small screen."[9] Grading the episode with a "B", Jenna Scherer of The A.V. Club described it as "If this first episode is anything to go on, House of the Dragon will be a more staid affair than Game of Thrones, for better or worse." However, she criticized the production design, particularly "the outfits, technology and jargon", for being "identical to the ones in Game of Thrones" despite taking place two centuries earlier.[10]
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