They are the knights of summer

I haven’t written a review on tumblr in a very long time, honestly I haven’t used tumblr for a very long time. I tend to get very involved with movies, tv shows and book, which is not always great for my mind. What brought me back here is House of the Dragon.

I was one of the people truly disappointed by the final of GoT, a show I had dedicated a lot, and I still am. So I wasn’t very hyped for the new spin off, I had decided to watch it with calm when it was all out and not follow it week by week. But then, purely by chance, I was with my sister the night of the season premiere and, since we are not able to see each other much at this point of our life, we wanted to recreate the many evenings spent together watching GoT when we were younger.

I really liked the first episode, the word building, the characters that I had read about in Fire and Blood years before, the dialogues that brought me back to GoT season 1. Westeros caught me back and it was nice to see a show about a world that I still love without the burden of the last season of GoT.

I think I was a casual viewer more or less until episode 4/5 when I realized “OK, I’m hooked again”. House of the Dragon really became the hilight of my week and a way to look forward to Mondays.

I didn’t really know what to expect from the show, my expectations were very low and maybe that’s why I appreciated it so much. I’ve never been a fan of the Targaryens and, while I did not hate her, I was never on team Daenerys, however I think that now I kind of love this house of crazy, dramatic people. And the dragons! I never cared for the dragons in GoT but I’m so excited for them in HotD. I’m a Stark girl for life but this show made me love the Targaryens!

When I read the book, and there was not even a hint of a possible show, one character stood out among all and that’s Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, the Queen Who Never Was (but should have been). I loved her from the first time I read about her, a fierce and bold dragon rider lady wrongly treated who should have been the queen of the Seven Kingdoms. I can’t describe how happy I am that the show version made me fell in love with her even more (Eve Best is a great casting choice!). She’s graceful, regal, wise, fierce and protective of her family, she’s faithful and loyal and has the boldness of a Targaryen. Say what you want about her escape on Meleys but that’s the Targaryen way and the scene was fucking beautiful.

No one on this show is a truly and completely good person and the show in my opinion shouldn’t be watched looking for the good vs bad people, it’s about interesting characters who commit terrible things, they have their reasons for it but they are all war criminals, let’s just choose our favorite. I’m team black all the way and I’m so ready to support all their crimes next season.

There are interesting characters on both teams to be fair and I want to see them all act.

The cast is really great and I could see their chemistry and real life affections. Eve Best stood out to me but they are all very good and add a lot of depth to these characters.

I did not expect to like Rhaenyra so much in the end, I was afraid I would not really tolerate her or feel like I feel about Daenerys but she actually won me over during the season. And for Daemon, he’s not the villain but is not a good person either and that’s fine.

There are some love stories in the show but of course my favorite is the one of Rhaenys and Corlys: that’s a true loving marriage (I got so many Ned and Cat vibes), a partnership built of trust and love that really emerges from their interactions, word and stares. Eve and Steve have great chemistry, are so committed the characters and they really did justice to my favorite book relationship. I know what may come for them but they’ll always be my favorite and I’ll always have those scenes that shows their real love for each other. I can’t get over how they look at each other. The idea that we could have the Sea Snake spin off and see their start pleases me immensely.

One thing I truly appreciate of this show is how much less violence, especially against women, and gratuitous nudity there is: they are trying to do better and I like it.