Rings of Power Versus House of the Dragon

Photo courtesy of IMDB.

Amazon and HBO Max go head to head with prequel series

Earlier this summer, I devoted an article to two competing productions from Amazon and Netflix (The Terminal List and The Gray Man), which, combined, cost those streaming platforms a boatload of money. 

That $300 million outlay, though, looks like chump change compared to what HBO Max and Amazon (still at the table, doubling down) are spending to go head to head against each other in the sword-and-sorcery sweepstakes: Amazon used a quarter billion of Jeff Bezos’ fortune just to secure the rights to J.R.R. Tolkein’s notebooks and doodlings for its prequel to The Lord of the Rings franchise, which (just to make sure the connection isn’t lost on anyone) is called The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. 

Meanwhile, HBO Max and its parent company, Warner Bros./Discovery, are prepared to pump as much as a billion into their five-season series prequel to The Game of Thrones, called House of the Dragon, about the Targaryen clan several generations before young Daenerys – she of the flowing white locks – declared herself “Mother of Dragons” and incinerated half of Westeros.

The stakes are enormous going forward because both of these franchises have legions of serious fans who will be parsing scenes and characters with a jeweler’s eye, looking for the tiniest flaw. 

I don’t purport to be that kind of viewer, but I did like the Rings trilogy that dominated both the box office and the Oscars during those sweetly innocent years of 2001-03 (just kidding – not about the films, though, which proved to be a welcome distraction from the real-life horrors going on in the world then). 

And I’ve watched the entire Game of Thrones series twice since its debut in 2011 and conclusion in 2019, as it established itself as “must-see TV” during a time of national tranquility and political bonhomie. (OK, I’ll quit with the snark and cut to the chase.)

Because it debuted first, let’s consider House of the Dragon first. The early episodes introduce us to several of Daenerys’ ancestors, including King Viserys (the great Irish actor Paddy Considine, using those emotive eyes of his to full effect); his daughter and controversial heir, Princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock, in dress and attitude very clearly the progenitor for Emilia Clarke in Game of Thrones); his brother, Prince Daemon (Matt Smith of The Crown), who lives up to his name as a royal hellion; and Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best), who is known around Kings’ Landing as “the queen who never was” because the throne was denied her because of her sex – and you don’t have to guess how she feels about that.

Surrounding the court is a rogues’ gallery of connivers and cutthroats in fancy dress: Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), the King’s Hand, who isn’t beyond pimping out his daughter, Lady Alicent (Emily Carey), for political gain; Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), who resents Viserys for sitting on a throne that he considers to be rightfully his; and Grand Maester Mellos (David Horovitch), the court scholar whose advice is often as self-serving as it is duplicitous. 

There are also several knights and ladies of questionable character darting in and out of clothes in true Game of Thrones fashion, because if the series’ creator, George R. R. Martin, knows one essential truth about this fantastical world he’s created, it’s this: Dragons may heat up a battle, but sex makes all the intrigue sizzle.

New episodes of House of the Dragon premiere Sundays through Oct. 23 on HBO and HBO Max, with previous episodes available on demand and streaming.

You won’t find a scintilla of sex in The Rings of Power, whose eight episodes will drop Fridays concluding Oct. 13, unless you want to consider some earthy badinage among Harfoots (the distant ancestors of Hobbits in Tolkein’s intricate fantasy world). 

Two in particular – young Elanor “Nori” Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenaugh) and her best friend and accomplice, Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards) – are given to speculating on what lies beyond the next hill (and getting into trouble as a result) as they try to make sense of their world, in much the way that Pippin and Merry did in the trilogy.

The Harfoots make up one strand of stories weaving through these early episodes in Middle-earth, thousands of years before Frodo, Gandalf, Strider and company band together in a fellowship. 

The elven Princess Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) occupies another as a veteran warrior of the epic battle against evil who is relentless in her pursuit of Sauron, despite the orders of her king to cease looking for someone no one wants her to find. (Galadriel will “age” into Cate Blanchett 4,000 years down the road to Mordor. Where can I get some of what she’s got?)

Another story line runs through Elrond (Hugo Weaving in the trilogy, played by Robert Aramayo of Game of Thrones fame here), an elven scribe and philosopher who feels responsible for betraying Galadriel with the king and tries to make amends by soliciting help from an estranged friend, the dwarf Prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur), to renew the alliance, just in case evil really hasn’t been vanquished from the world. 

And there are men, of course, mucking about the Southlands; and an elf warrior, Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova), who’s tracking Orcs with Bronwin (Nazanin Boniadi), a woman healer; and a strange, old man who falls naked from the sky. How all these stories fit together is for future episodes to reveal.

The pace of Rings is far more stately than Dragons, and the visuals more bucolic and magical, befitting a paradise that will come to know darkness centuries later. Both productions feature cool maps and place-location graphics that help keep things easy to follow.

It’s early, I’ll admit, but winter is coming. I’m in with both of these new series for now, keeping my fingers crossed that all that money will add up to something worth the weekly investment.

In another lifetime, Mike Orlock wrote film reviews for the Reporter/Progress newspapers in the western suburbs of Chicago. He has also taught high school English, coached basketball and authored three books of poetry. He currently serves as Door County’s poet laureate.