House Of The Dragon Already Does Its Dragons Better Than Game Of Thrones
We've just learned from Warner Bros. Discovery that House of the Dragon series has become the most viewed title ever on HBO streaming services in Europe.
The show has outrun the network's Game of Throne Season 8. Besides, it has set the record as the most viewed new original series in HBO's history. Quite a success indeed. But let's leave the numbers to those responsible for the stats.
Many fans believe the show is better than its successful rival GoT in many ways. And one of the things which make House of the Dragon stand out is the dragons.
Back in July Ryan Condal told the San Diego Comic-Con crowd that we'll get a hell of a lot of fire spitting beasts in House of the Dragon.
"There are 17 of them at the height of this," Condal said. "So, it was important to differentiate them in not only the way they look and behaved and acted, [but also] the way they bonded with their riders."
Speaking about the dangerous creatures Condal said, "We really took all those things that are given to us in the book and tried to extrapolate them and add personalities to them. Like Caraxes is very cantankerous and agitated. He's always moving and flexing, and he never sits still, much like his rider. And yeah, we built from Syrax and Caraxes, and Vhagar, who is the biggest dragon alive right now, a behemoth, and then went on to the second tier and third tier dragons."
And now let's do a little bit of math. The series features Caraxes, Dreamfyre, Meleys, Varmax, Sunfyre, Moondancer, Tyraxes, Vermithor, Silverwing, Arrax, Syrax, Seasmoke. The terrible Vhagar, the sister of Balerion the Black Dread – the only surviving dragon to have come to Westeros with Aegon the Conqueror. And if this doesn't sound enough for you just get back to Episode 10 when Daemon mentions three more dragons nesting somewhere around Dragonstone.
How many of them did Game of Thrones have? Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion – that's three!
And it is not all about the quantity but cinematic quality of the HoTD beasts. The fans have noticed the difference and say that dragons in the show "surely are more faithful to the books", being all different and unique.
The showrunners' attention to detail and a well-though approach to designing the dragons has paid off. We simply adore the flying serpents' different sizes, the color and behavior.
"Much better in HOTD. Mostly I like the color differences. The GOT dragons were different colors as well, but it was so much more subtle. It's also cool to see the size differences. We got a huge red one and a smaller yellow one. I still like the GOT dragons though. These are just an upgrade." – u/100PlusRyan
Season 2 will tell us about the Targaryen Civil War. It means that we will surely see all of the dragons in action more often.
The production of S2 has started but filming isn't expected to end until summer 2023. The series release may occur sometime in 2024.