Yahoo Movies House of the Dragon vs The Rings of Power: which is the show for you?
Typical, isn’t it? You wait years for a prequel series to a beloved fantasy franchise, and then two come along at once. Our candlelit golden goblet overfloweth. On August 21, House of the Dragon, a prequel to Game of Thrones, begins on HBO. Before you’ve got your life back, on September 2, The Rings of Power, a prequel to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, starts on Amazon Prime Video. If you like dragons, elves and British character actors in codpieces, you are in for a rich autumn.
In fact, perhaps too rich. These are the two series that, more than any other, broke fantasy out of its niche and into the mainstream. Their producers have made large wagers that they can replicate the magic. Both shows are thought to have cost well into the hundreds of millions of pounds. The Rings of Power, in particular, has been billed as the most expensive television programme of all time.
Normally, everyone involved would have wanted them to air as far apart from each other as possible, to give them both a crack at the widest audience. Instead, the billion-dollar clash presents a kind of Sophie’s Choice for nerds, or at least those in full-time employment, in which they must choose between their two favourites.
How to decide between the two? On the one side is a drama set in Westeros, a fictional continent at a vaguely medieval level of development, where warring factions vie for control against a backdrop of magical, fantastical beasts, and the forces of darkness. On the other is a drama set in Middle-earth, a fictional continent at a vaguely medieval level of… well, you get the idea.
Which path will you, the noble questing viewer, choose? The way of the Dragon? Or the Rings cycle? Here is our trusty guide.
If you like… Dragons
We have been promised no fewer than 17 dragons in House of the Dragon, which stands to reason. Dragronseal: it does what it says on the tin. Still, the dragons in Game of Thrones, while agreeably scaly, are akin to massive flying rottweilers. They are loyal and fierce, but not especially ingenious. Tolkien’s dragons are more like Michael Heseltine: cunning, reptilian, English-speaking and keen on treasure. One does not simply ride Smaug into Mordor. We do not know exactly how much dragon content to expect from The Rings of Power, but there is a flashback to one in episode one, which is promising. As per Chekhov’s maxim about guns, you do not show a bit of dragon ankle unless you’re planning to rip off the full skirt later on.
Your champion: House of the Dragon
If you like… Money
Speaking of treasure, it has been estimated that the first series of The Rings of Power has cost $462 million (£382 million), a number that is expected to rise to well over $1 billion when marketing and future series are included. Its producers defended this Smaug-esque budget on the grounds that it is really an “eight-hour film”. HBO has hardly skimped on House of the Dragon, but reports suggest that each of its 10 episodes has come in for “under $20 million” – a bargain! – which makes it a two-bit pub production compared with the Tolkien adaptation.
Your champion: The Rings of Power
If you like… Sex
In keeping with The Lord of the Rings’ family-friendly history, The Rings of Power will be a PG-13. Expect romance, but not of the “shooting a prostitute with a crossbow” variety. Jolly dwarf marriages, chaste elf snogs, goblin petting, that kind of thing. Game of Thrones might have been criticised for its more unpleasant sex scenes, but the bonking was a big part of its initial appeal. Ian McShane, who played a small part in Game of Thrones, described the show as “tits and dragons”. House of the Dragon has read the memo, laying on so much sex that Matt Smith, its star, has complained that he had “a bit too much”.
Your champion: House of the Dragon
If you like… the Books
The prequels are a battle of the ephemera. Game of Thrones was based on a series of novels by George R R Martin, whose zeal for bumping off his main characters gave the tale much of its frisson. Thanks to his glacial writing pace, the television series quickly overtook its source. The unhappy later episodes, where the TV writers took over, felt more hemmed in by small-screen convention. House of the Dragon is based on Martin’s sketches of the earlier Targaryen era, Fire & Blood (2018), the kind of non-core project that is apt to get some of his fans fuming. The Rings of Power is based on Tolkien’s appendices to The Lord of the Rings, which focus on the long-ago “Second Age”. Both are sprawling fictional histories, reverse-engineered into stories by the filmmakers. We’re giving this to Dragon, just, mostly because Tolkien on an off day is borderline unreadable.
Your champion: House of the Dragon
If you like… Famous People
The Rings of Power, for all its largesse, has steered clear of celebrity actors. Relative newcomers Morfydd Clark and Robert Aramayo play the young (by elf standards) Galadriel and Elrond. The most familiar face to British viewers may be Lenny Henry, popping up as Sadoc Burrows, which screams Premier Inn rather than Hollywood glamour. House of the Dragon has Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen, a swaggering young prince in a corrupt dynasty, a drastic shift from his role as Prince Philip in The Crown. Paddy Considine, Rhys Ifans and Olivia Cooke flesh out the cast. Expect this paragraph to look out of date in three years when all the young Rings of Power stars, especially the brilliant Clark, are collecting Oscars.
Your champion: House of the Dragon
If you like… not just white blokes
The Lord of the Rings films were only released 20 years ago, but the casting already looks about as contemporary as Bernard Manning smoking in a hospital. The Fellowship might have had a wizard, a dwarf, an elf and a few hobbits, but they were still nine white blokes. The women comprised an ethereal queen, a hot princess and a jilted blonde. Anyone tempted to moan that this is what Tolkien imagined ought to bear in mind that this is a franchise about magical jewellery in which talking trees save the day. Although Game of Thrones came later, it was only marginally less straight-white-blokey, even if there was a smorgasbord of sexualities.
Both prequels have tried to make amends. Dragon has Steve Toussaint as Corlys Velaryon, although depressingly he has already received racist abuse, as well as a non-binary actor, Emma D’Arcy, as Princess Rhaenyra. Rings of Power, on the evidence of the first episode, is strikingly diverse, with black hobbits and Afro-Latino elves.
Your champion: The Rings of Power
If you like… Laughing
Neither franchise tends to have you rolling in the aisles. The Lord of the Rings’ fondness for portentousness, especially among the humourless elves, eclipsed its occasional “nobody tosses a dwarf”-type high jinks. The comic soul of Game of Thrones was provided by Peter Dinklage’s wisecracking imp, Tyrion, assisted by a few laconic knights. But on the evidence of what we’ve seen, House of the Dragon has the edge over The Rings of Power, for many of the same reasons it is better on the bonking front: its older age rating means it can make jokes beyond the Enid Blyton window of acceptability.
Your champion: House of the Dragon
If you like… Costumes
These are two of the elite fancy-dress franchises in television history. Neither disappoints on the frock front. The stand-out of The Rings of Power is Galadriel’s resplendent silver armour, infinitely more badass than the floaty dresses the elf favours in her Cate Blanchett incarnation, if sadly harder to recreate at Hallowe’en. Amid House of the Dragon’s tunics and tabards, it is hard to keep your eyes off Smith’s peroxide-blond Targaryen lid. (Doctor) Who does your highlights?
Your champion: The Rings of Power
If you like… Scenery
The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films were famously shot in New Zealand. Its snowy peaks, undulating green hills and sapphire-blue rivers meant that these were perhaps the only films about half-orcs that made viewers think about a walking holiday. The production went back down under for The Rings of Power. On the evidence we’ve seen so far, the land is as sumptuous as ever, with appealing seafront elf resorts where it is easy to imagine a mini-break. Who minds a bit of evil magic when the view’s so good?
Your champion: The Rings of Power
Both of these dramas are television on a scale that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. Ultimately what divides the two is their commitment to realism. Game of Thrones and its source books were a response to Tolkien’s wholesome escapism, which for all its monsters and mayhem is a world where, eventually, the baddies lose. House of the Dragon, as in Game of Thrones, is as much about human politics rather than good and evil. You don’t know who will win, or who will die. Although you can be confident that there will be dragons.
House of the Dragon starts August 21 on HBO Max. The Rings of Power begins September 2 on Amazon Prime Video
