Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon is a 2022 high fantasy drama series by HBO, and is a prequel to the 2011-2019 show Game of Thrones. Both take place in the A Song of Ice and Fire universe by George R. R. Martin.

It took me awhile, but I made it through House of the Dragon.

First, I have to make a bit of a disclaimer. I engage in media of so many kinds; movies, books, shows, podcasts. Much of the content I consume contains adult themes, to put it lightly. The most recent episode of my favorite podcast, Hardcore History: Twilight of the Aesir II, featured graphic recountings of Viking torture and sexual practices with their slaves and servants. History, including our modern day, is full of “adult themes.”

That is why, when some would dismiss Game of Thrones out of hand for its adult themes, I do not necessarily. What is it saying about those adult themes? If what the media is saying is that, have fun and enjoy this sexual imagery, well no, I don’t agree with that. But if what this media is saying is what Hardcore History is saying–that we are accurately portraying human nature, even its most twisted forms–then, I engage with caution. I never want to cross a line, but I think we can engage in media that depicts the world as it truly is, in all its depravity and in all its joys.

And that is precisely what House of the Dragon does: humanity, in all its depravity and in all its joys, with all of our mistakes and flaws as well as all our highs and successes. Yes, it’s a fantasy show with dragons and magic and made-up languages and countries and people. But because I am fascinated with the history of people, in our flaws and our glory, I am also fascinated with this show. I am also fascinated with its spiritual message.

A Summary

House of the Dragon takes place in the fictional world of Westeros, loosely based on high medieval Europe, and England especially. Westeros is known as “The Seven Kingdoms.” About a hundred years before the events of the show, House Targaryen, led by Aegon, conquered all of the Seven Kingdoms using its giant fire-breathing magic dragons. Then, there was a crisis: who would be the next King? Both the first son and the second son of the King at the time have died. Should the oldest daughter of the first son rule, or the oldest son of the second son rule? Westeros takes a vote, and the boy wins.

But that boy is King Viserys, Aegon’s great grandson, and now he has no sons, only a daughter, named Rhaenyra. When his wife dies and his brother seems unfit to rule due to his wild and chaotic nature, King Viserys proclaims his teenage daughter Rhaenyra as his next heir. But then Viserys marries again, and who does he choose but Rhaenyra’s teenage best friend Alicent? Then Alicent has a son. Who’s going to rule now?

What follows is the ups and downs of the best dramas. Rhaenyra lives a spoiled and entitled life until her actions have consequences and she’s forced to make choices to protect her eventual husband and children. Viserys’s chaotic but legacy-obsessed brother Daemon causes problems wherever he goes. Alicent’s father is constantly trying to manipulate Viserys. Alicent is forced to play a role with her now-husband, worrying constantly for her life. Other houses, spurned by Viserys’s choice of wife, decide they like Daemon more than Rhaenyra, or that they don’t like any of the Targaryens at all. Other advisors, friends, and enemies rotate in and out the royal court of Westeros.

Over the course of the show, more than 16 years pass. We see these teenagers became adults, these parents become grandparents. They make their own choices to secure their legacy or to gain power or to change the world–or just to stay alive.

The show ends when King Viserys dies after a decades-long battle with a corrosive, leprosy-like disease. Alicent puts forward her son as King, and Rhaenyra makes the choice to put herself forward as Queen. The season ends with Westeros on the brink of civil war.

It’s a cliffhanger ending, but also wraps up many of the arcs of the season in a satisfying way. What will happen next? We’ll find out this summer of 2024. Before that, though, you might be wondering: what makes this show so great? The summary up above might not seem like anything special. It’s a court drama with magic, The Crown with dragons. What makes it so good?

The Characters

The element that makes this show so great is its characters.

What you might notice from my summary up above is that there really aren’t that many action scenes. Most of the show is people talking. In hallways, talking. At parties, talking. In bedrooms, talking. It’s most just… people. It has a handful of battle scenes and a few action, adventure, or tense moments. But overall, it entirely rests on these people, these made-up kings and queens and rulers, being interesting people.

And they are.

There’s Alicent, played as a teenager by Emily Carey and by an adult by Olivia Cooke. A former friend of Princess Rhaenyra, she is forced to marry a king by her father. Alone, in a position she didn’t want, married to a widower whose only love was his dead wife, she’s forced to learn how to play the game. Duty-bound and religious, she thinks Rhaenyra is a spoiled child refusing to do her duty. Slighted one too many times, forced into corners to protect children that her own husband doesn’t seem to care about, embarrassed by Rhaenyra and angry at her, she makes complete sense as she makes hard decisions to protect her family.

There’s Rhaenyra, played as a teenager by Milly Alcock and as an adult by Emma D’Arcy. Daughter of a king, headstrong and not wanting to be married off just because that’s what girls too, she wants to make her own way. She wants to be an effective ruler when it’s thrust upon her. However, she also wants to find true love rather than marrying for necessity. She tries to do both. But when her children look like her lover rather than her husband, she is forced to make choices to protect them: she can’t choose love but duty now. She grows into this rule that was never her first choice, stumbling along the way but trying her best to make the best out of her situation. She makes complete sense as she makes hard decisions to protect her family.

I could go on and on. But each character “makes sense.” Some are out to protect family. Some are out to advance their family. Some are out to put their children into better places than they had. Some are out to control a world that is out of control. Some are out for influence in a world where they are slighted off to the side. No one is perfect. No one is 100% good or 100% bad. Sometimes you find yourself rooting for Rhaenyra; sometimes you’re disgusted at Rhaenyra and find yourself rooting for Alicent.

They’re people. Yes, Alicent believes in a fake religion called “The Seven,” where they worship a sevenfold god. Yes, Rhaenyra rides a dragon. Yes, there are ancient magical bloodlines and special swords and monsters. But through the costumes and wigs, they’re people; or, they feel that way, at least, real people in hard situations making decisions the best they know how.

There are two standouts. The first is Prince Daemon, amazingly acted by Matt Smith. The disinherited younger brother of King Viserys, he is violent and unpredictable. However, he will also do anything, anything, for House Targaryen. He thinks Viserys is a weak king and that he should be the Hand of the King, the equivalent of the Prime Minister or President to the King. Not, however, for himself; but for the strength of House Targaryen. He is also obsessed with Valyria, the ancient dragon-home of the Targaryens, and its legacy. He toes the line between murdering psychopath and family watchdog. Every scene he is in, he is absolutely kinetic and you never know what he will do.

But the best of the entire series, both in writing and performance, is Paddy Considine as Viserys I Targaryen. An initial watch might make him seem an affable buffoon who gets pulled this way and that by everyone in the room. However, a closer viewing would show that he constantly knows what’s going on. He subtly calls out the manipulations of other characters on him. He uses humor deftly to calm situations and redirect criticism. He makes mistakes, but he is constantly juggling the peace of the realm. He works actively to broker peace, even in situations that he has put himself in.

At the same time, it is clear he is passionate. His first wife, Aemma, was his only love. When his mind begins slipping, he calls Alicent “Aemma” and calls Rhaenyra “my only child.” He keeps Rhaenyra on the throne partially out of passion for his only love. He uses Alicent and doesn’t pay attention to those children by her, and that is wrong. He goes with his emotions and, for all intents and purposes, rapes Alicent to makes more heirs, although that is a part of the system they are both in. He also goes with his emotions in ignoring those children.

However, you feel for the man, especially in Considine’s inspired performance as his health deteriorates. The makeup and effects on him are pitch-perfect. It is one of the most amazing parts of this 16 year show; you see him have a finger wound, a back wound; lose some fingers; lose his arm; have the disease climb up his face, losing an eye.

There are some who say that he is a good man but a bad king. I do not think so. Trapped in a situation that would be rough for any king as everyone pulls on him, he manages to hold the realm together even in his failing health.

And the famous scene where he proudly hobbles through the throne room of Westeros one more time to declare his support for Rhaenyra (linked here) is one of the most moving scenes I’ve seen of any show, and is more moving than most of Game of Thrones for its particular show of strength. Its a rare form of courage that you don’t see often in media: a diseased man in his failing health pulling out all his strength for his daughter. All of it is spectacular. And then it ends with his brother Daemon helping him up the stairs to the throne and then placing the crown back on his head. Perhaps, all along, all Daemon wanted to do was be by his brother’s side, even though he was disinherited, even though he caused so much chaos. He puts the crown back on his brother’s head.

For all of this, the show would be recommendation enough. But Viserys’ character segues nicely into one of the Bigger Questions that this series proposes to us.

The Bigger Questions

There are some big questions in this show. Questions about power, abuse, war, evil, good, systems that perpetuate harm and violence. There’s a lot that could be mined from those topics.

However, the one that interests me the most is the spiritual “big question” of the show.

Viserys’s great grandfather Aegon was not the first to come to Westeros. His great-great-or-something grandmother, Visenya, came to Westeros from Valyria because she saw a vision of the future. She saw a vision of the fall of their homeland.

Aegon had a dream, too. His dream of the future was that the Targaryens were needed to unite all of Westeros to fight against an apocalyptic doom. One of their kings would be Azor Ahai, a Jesus-like Messiah who would save them all from the dark. That is one of the main plot points of Game of Thrones.

Well, Viserys knows about the dream. He’s had his own dream, too, which he thinks is of the future: he’ll place his son Aegon on the throne to cheering. He thinks this son might be the one to save the world, or least, that he’ll have a son.

Why does he disinherit Daemon? Why does he keep pushing his wife for more heirs to the point of killing her? Why does he marry again and keep having sons? Why is he so affable, so gentile, so focused on preserving peace rather than resorting to violence like Daemon? Why does he deflect criticism, allow some festering to take place to keep calm rather than cause more disorder with anger and a quick temper?

Viserys is guided by a bigger worldview. He has something more to see than all of the political machinations of the realm. More than family legacy, more than power, more than control, more than just staying alive. There is destruction from the cold and dark coming. He knows he has to be the one to continue it.

Knowing this fact is key to understanding absolutely everything Viserys does. This bigger spiritual question, this greater risk invisible to everyone else, is what drives him. He has two passions, you might say: his dead wife Aemma, and the Dreams.

In fact, his last words as he dies are to babble about this Dream of Aegon’s, then to say as he passes away, “My Love.” His passion for Aemma kept Rhaenyra his heir. His passion for the Dream kept the peace.

In one of the final scenes of the show, Rhaenyra tells her uncle Daemon about the Dream, thinking he already knew about it. But he didn’t. Viserys never trusted him with that information. Daemon’s response to Rhaenyra is, “Dreams don’t matter. Dragons do.” He doesn’t care about these grand questions that plagued Viserys, which explains his chaotic nature, his anger, his violence, his willingness to do anything to protect his family because that’s all he has. But Rhaenyra? Viserys? They have something bigger.

This raises deep ideas that concern a spiritual person, especially someone who is a Christian. How do you act when you know the world is “bigger?” How does a worldview shaped by greater concerns than the here-and-now effect how I act in my day-to-day? How does what I do perhaps seem weak, or misguided, or out-of-place to others, others like a Daemon, when in reality it is perfectly coherent with a world they do not understand or refuse to understand?

Viserys has been a universally praised part of the show, for good reason. But it’s not just that Viserys is a good character that struck me. He’s a character near and dear to my heart.

Because just like he is unique as a character in so many ways, he is unique in that I find a spiritual parallel. Yes, he is unique in his strength. Rarely does any media portray a fatally sick man struggling across a room to stand up for his family. Rarely does any media portray courage like that. Rarely does a show portray a man who is (mostly) kind, using well-placed humor mixed with a keen sense of observation in a political drama with backstabbing and plots and schemes, let alone with dragons or magic or fake cultures or fantasy.

And, rarely do any shows give deep spiritual content to hold onto. Rarely do any shows truly show the struggles of religious or spiritual people, struggling with the meaning of a message and applying it in the face of skepticism, bad odds, high stakes, and horrible decisions. This show is full of people, real people in difficult situations and making both good and bad decisions, even with costumes and dragons. And the most “real” person it showcases struggles with applying a deeply spiritual question to his hard life.

What could be more real than that?