[This story contains spoilers from the Dune: Prophecy series premiere, as well as House of the Dragon seasons one and two.]
The tip of an old war brings a few regime change in a faraway fantasy land. From that moment forward, one organization holds all of the cards over the remaining of civilization, while others scheme and plot their way toward ultimate power — or die trying.
Sound familiar? That could possibly be since it’s a really vague description of two HBO shows that aired episodes this 12 months: House of the Dragon, which accomplished its second season over the summer, and the most recent arrival, Dune: Prophecy, based on the novel universe created by Frank Herbert and most recently adapted for film by Denis Villeneuve.
Coming hot on the heels of the widely beloved (and fellow Max import) Penguin, the brand new Dune series goals to capture HBO loyalist’s attention with one other epic novel adaptation, not entirely unlike the other epic novel adaptation. Early reviews pegged Dune: Prophecy as a veritable Game of Thrones clone, but is it a good critique for a series built on the back of a extremely popular franchise in its own right?
Now that the Dune premiere episode, “The Hidden Hand,” is out, we will take a more in-depth look and judge for ourselves. Let’s lay out a couple of elements from Dune and House of the Dragon to see just how close they are surely.
Emily Watson as Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen in Dune: Prophecy.
Max
° Dune: Prophecy takes place 116 years after a war, and 10,148 years before the birth of Paul Atreides. (No Timothee Chalamet on this show, unfortunately, but perhaps we’ll get a lookalike.) House of the Dragon, alternatively, takes place 100 years after a war of its own (Aegon’s Conquest), and 172 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen. Each shows feature title cards with this information after a gap sequence; a for much longer and bloodier one in Dune’s case.
° Each shows have a watch on a throne. Within the case of Dune: Prophecy, it’s Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson; Jessica Barden in flashbacks), who wishes to shape the Imperium toward a perfected future. Within the case of HOTD, and positively in Game of Thrones proper, it’s all in regards to the throne and who will take it for their very own use. Political intrigue is on the beating heart of each.
° There are some analogous characters drifting between the 2 shows. Vikings and Raised by Wolves star Travis Fimmel once more commits to the violent bit, this time playing Desmond Hart, a radicalized soldier with schemes of his own. Not terribly removed from his HOTD counterpart, Daemon Targaryen. There’s a little bit of King Viserys in Mark Strong’s Emperor Corrine, a mild-mannered man making some morally dubious decisions for what he sees as a greater good. Who knows what the long run holds, but sisters Valya and Tula (Olivia Williams; Emma Canning in flashbacks) are giving Rhaenyra and Alicent immediately.
° In the primary episode alone, Dune covers lots of terrain House of the Dragon needed five episodes to clear. A young princess sleeps along with her sworn protector: check with Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) and Keiran Atreides (Chris Mason), and check again with Rhaenyra and Criston Cole. Each hook-ups, by the way in which, occur either on the opposite side or within the midst of Ynez and Rhaenyra visiting what amounts for every show’s universe as a nightclub. In each shows, an eventful wedding breaks out in shocking violence; Dune sees a poor little prince meeting his fiery maker after fidgeting with a glorified Transformer motion figure, less gruesome but still deadly similar to Rhaenyra and Laenor’s midpoint wedding in season one. (And yes, royal childhood betrothals are one more unlucky thing each shows share.) The list goes on.
Okay, fair enough: House of the Dragon and Dune: Prophecy map onto one another pretty neatly. Dune even has a prophecy MacGuffin, the Breeding Index, that can’t fall into the unsuitable hands, similar to the Targaryen’s Valyrian dagger and its Song of Ice and Fire prophecy. But because it’s said on one other series set in space, gone but not forgotten: “All of this has happened before, all of it will occur again.”
If Dune seems like a Game of Thrones show, it’s because we’ve been asking questions on intricate royal bloodlines and the corrupting power of their authority long before television was a twinkle in the attention. The one thing that actually matters here: can Dune: Prophecy do it in another way enough to differentiate its place within the pantheon of those sorts of big-swing adventure epics? It’s a bit unclear in the mean time, but there are still five episodes left to seek out out.
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Dune: Prophecy releases latest episodes Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO/Max, streaming on Max.
