Why was House of The Dragon Episode 7 ‘Driftmark’ so dark?

The seventh episode of Game of Thrones prequel House of The Dragon was quite eventful, to say the least. Beginning at a grim note with Laena Velaryon’s funeral after her suicide in episode 6, the gathering at Driftmark was particularly sensitive, with various groups trying their best to not invoke any kind of conflict. But as they say, wherever Targaryens are, trouble is likely to follow. And things rarely end well for them.

However, with so much going on in that episode, the audience had one critical problem, and it was difficult to ignore. And it brought back memories of a highly controversial Game of Thrones sequence. The issue was, a lot of them couldn’t see anything! It was simply too dark to make out anything, especially when Aemond Targaryen claims Vhagar, one of the most crucial and highly anticipated scenes of Season 1. It caused a huge uproar on social media, and eventually made its way to WB/HBO’s customer executives.

And guess what their response was? HBO’s official Twitter account wrote, “We appreciate you reaching out about a night scene in House of the Dragon: Episode 7 appearing dark on your screen. The dimmed lighting of this scene was an intentional creative decision.”

Well, there you have it, folks, it was intentional, and many have been connecting the dots to Miguel Sapochnik, who also directed the Game of Thrones Season 8 episode ‘The Long Night’, which really was as dark as a moonless night. Episode 8 of House of The Dragon was grim and dark, hence the shaded palette, and a lot of fans did say on social media that it wasn’t as invisible as most claimed.

What other reasons there might be for the dark screen? Production cost? Nope, House of The Dragon had a massive budget, and a lot of the scenes were shot in daylight and then converted into the ones you see on-screen. The main objective of the showrunners was to show a lot that happened in the episode was under the cover of darkness, secretly, while also predicting a dark shadow that looms over the Targaryen dynasty.

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