One major benefit of “House of the Dragon” riding on the coattails of the success of “Game of Thrones” is that, unlike its predecessor, HBO has given creator/showrunner Ryan Condal a soaring budget that the first few seasons of the original were never able to enjoy. While that’s allowed the prequel’s creative team to depict much bigger and more expansive battles, load up every frame with hundreds of extras, and generally create an all-encompassing sense of grandeur, another happy side effect is that they’re able to go back on occasion and improve upon what came before.
Episode 5 first does so in the subplot following Rhaena Velaryon (Phoebe Campbell) as she accompanies the young children of Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and those precious dragon eggs to the Eyrie in order to secure her alliance with Lady Jeyne Arryn (Amanda Collin), a close relative of Rhaenyra’s late mother and a key wildcard in the region known as the Vale. It doesn’t take long at all for “House of the Dragon” to show off its new-and-improved take on the Eyrie, lingering on a gorgeous shot of the mountain fortress that proves why it has withstood many a siege over the long centuries. This already feels more extensive compared to the noticeably brief looks we had in season 1 of “Game of Thrones,” when Tyrion was brought to the same castle as a prisoner and the then-unproven series went out of its way to confine the action to interior sets that only hinted at the location’s notoriously faint-inducing heights.
To be fair, this episode of “House of the Dragon” similarly limits its scenes in the Eyrie to one terse conversation between Rhaena and Jeyne indoors, but we can safely expect future episodes to expand on this even more.
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