House of the Dragon season 2: a fiery return

First series to expand the universe of Game Of Thrones, House of the Dragon had arrived at the baptismal font of HBO in 2022 with an almost impossible mission: to follow in the footsteps of its elder while finding its own path. In the end, the story of the internal rivalries that tore apart the ancestors of the iconic Daenerys Targaryen had demonstrated a sense of the grandiose and the spectacular equivalent to its model. But, from a narrative point of view, this prologue was slipping: untimely jumps in time accelerated the family tree and the offspring of rival queens Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy). Without giving this multitude of offspring time to gain depth and arouse any emotion.

This second season, which inaugurates the Max platform in France, corrects the situation. “The first burst of episodes required us to cover twenty years of history: from childhood to the marriages of Alicent and Rhaenyra, to the birth and unions of their own children. From now on, we are returning to a traditional rhythm, less turbulent, which allows us to explore, in real time, the implosion of this blended royal family.agrees creator Ryan Condal.

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On the side of the common people

The plot picks up five days after the death of Rhaenyra’s son. The march towards civil war is inevitable. “Torn between his daughter and his second wife, the late King Viserys failed to make the right decisions. A loving patriarch, he sowed the seeds of dissension and transformed these young women into pawns in the war for thrones. Becoming women of power transformed them and revealed new flaws,” explains Ryan Condal, more comfortable describing court intrigues on the Green side (Alicent’s supporters) than among the Blacks. Rhaenyra, a mother consumed by grief who forgets her duties as sovereign, no longer holds her ambiguous husband, Daemon (Matt Smith, sinister and egocentric, in contrast to his role as prince consort Philip Mountbatten in The Crown). She suffers more than she dictates the responses.

This weakness of writing, sources of inconsistencies, sometimes runs out of steam in this ambitious epic, where the crown princes emerge from the maternal shadow, becoming protagonists in their own right, eager to make their mark. Their methods, naive and warlike, their rivalries (notably between Alicent’s sons, Aegon and Aemond) only inflame people’s minds. It is sometimes in the immediate circle that the most formidable enemies and saboteurs nestle.

Each faction seeks allies and increases assassination attempts aimed at destabilizing the opposing camp. The law of retaliation reigns: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Love and humor are reduced to a minimum in the face of hatred, tears and despair. This Monday’s episode ends with a heartbreaking scene in line with the Sophie’s Choice. An amoral and repulsive twist in the pure tradition of Game Of Thrones. It foreshadows the sequel, rich in shocking and bloody moments so typical of Westeros.

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A sign of the confidence taken by Condal, the outbidding is in order. More battles and more dragons. Five new specimens appear and spin the metaphor of nuclear war and total destruction. The series, which broadens its focus, moves away from the capital, Port-Réal, to focus on the common people, “who toasts when the nobles have a disagreement”. Through their suffering, Ryan Condal demonstrates the futility of a war, triggered by ignorance of history, and whose motives become vague and elusive. Among the vassals ordered to choose a side, the Starks enter the scene, led by Cregan, a young man with a strong commitment to duty. With his eyes fixed on the wall that Jon Snow will watch over, centuries later, he sounds the alarm: “Winter is back. » A familiar refrain that gives hope for good days ahead House of the Dragon.