The Internet Has Figured Out 'House of the Dragon' is Basically 'Shrek,' and Has the Video Evidence to Back it Up
I think I speak for a lot of people when I say HBO's House of the Dragon has been one of the true pleasant surprises on TV in years. I think we've all learned from other prequels to existing IPs to dial down our expectations. Because trying to tell good stories about the things that happened before the good stories that you care about rarely ever works out. For every The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, you get a slew of crap nobody asked for or should want, like Dumb & Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd. And I've made my case for why I had no use for Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which is just watered down Tolkien fanfic, with no one involved having a subatomic particle of Professor Tolkien's life experience, language skills or talent. It's basically Young Galadriel, and belongs on CBS Thursday nights, ahead of that show with the wacky ghosts.
So I respect the job they're doing with House of the Dragon. The cast is great. The showrunners seem to respect the deep, rich world building George RR Martin did. And can tell a story like adults, which is all too rare today.
And yet, people have noticed things that have escaped most of us. The eerie similarities between HotD and another legendary medieval fantasy epic:
To be fair, if you're making fiction that takes place in fantasy worlds with kings, castles, swords, enchanted animals, and giant flying lizards that breath fire, there's going to be some overlap. And I'm not saying this will ruin the experience because we'll all just be looking for context clues from Shrek. But once you see this, it's hard not to unsee it.
I'll let the showrunners off the hook somewhat, just because I think that what's at play here isn't plagiarism. I don't think they're slipping in some subtle homage, the way directors ripoff Hitchcock or Quentin Tarantino will take shots almost directly from martial arts movies he loves or whatever. I think this is just helps prove one theory of fiction. And that is that there are only so many stories you can tell. And we just keep making them over and over again.
In 2004 author Christopher Booker numbered them for his book The Seven Basic Plots. First by explaining there is one universal "meta-plot," in which the hero is called to action, meets with frustration and nightmare scenarios before overcoming their burden and resolving the story. Then listing the types of plots thusly:
- Overcoming the monster
- Rags to riches
- The quest
- Voyage and return
- Comedy
- Tragedy
- Rebirth
Replace Daemon Targaryen with an ogre, Rhaenys Targaryen with a talking donkey, and Lord Farquaad with anyone sitting on any other throne in Westeros, take out the orgy scene and an excruciating childbirth or two, and you can go from TV-MA to teaching your kids that farting monsters are hilarious in no time flat. Just plug-and-play the character beats and story elements into one of these seven templates, and you're a creative genius. Just don't be surprised if others who are creative in their own right don't see the trick you pulled and call you on it. This is what the internet was invented for.