The inventor of High Valyrian, David Peterson, has taken a look at some of the writing for House of the Dragon and has very high praise.
Linguist and creator of the High Valyrian language, which was originally made for Game of Thrones, David Peterson, just went on the Bald Move Game of Thrones podcast and talked about his experience with the scripts for House of the Dragon. The linguist went on to say they’re better than anything he’s worked on before, including Game of Thrones, and we couldn’t be more excited. Read below for his full statements.
Dialogue of the scripts he translated and their quality
“There was a lot more dialogue than I was expecting, which I was very pleased by. And a lot of very well-written dialogue, which I was also pleased by. It really challenged me as a translator.”
Challenge of writing in High Valyrian for specific characters
“That is something I was dealing with in House of the Dragon because there is one character who, as he is speaking these lines of English, speaks in a very different way from the other people he is talking to. Not necessarily less formal, but perhaps more flippant. I really wanted to be able to capture that in the Valyrian.”
Host: “I think I know the character you’re talking about. I won’t name him but I think I know the character.”
“Yeah, so that was kind of a difficult thing. It was one of the challenges this season. How can I kind of convey that sense in Valyrian? I know how to do it in English but how do I do it in Valyrian. So that was a challenge. And I expect it to be an ongoing one. So I’ll keep at it.”
On the amount of Valyrian in House of the Dragon
“I think so. Because in seasons 3, 4, and 5, a lot of it was not actually High Valyrian. A lot of it was Astapori. And then starting around season 6, the amount of material I was able to do really dropped off steeply. So yeah this is probably the most High Valyrian that I’ve done in a season. I was really pleasantly surprised by that. It’s not the most work I’ve done on a season, but it’s the most Valyrian that I’ve done.”
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His impressions on the House of the Dragon script
“It’s very difficult to read a script and tell what it’s going to be like when you see it on screen and tell if it’s going to be good or not. It’s very, very difficult. I’ve had experiences where I read things and I thought they were really great and then they played out a little prosaicly on screen. And then I’ve had complete opposite reactions where it’s like ‘ok so this happens’ and then I see it and I’m like ‘wow that was really cool.’ It’s just super hard to tell.
But what I know about this series is that the parts that I’m involved with – the writing that I’m reading is better than anything I’ve worked on. Outside of like Penny Dreadful, which for me is my favorite show that I’ve worked on…
…Just reading it – it’s really, really good. And it was one of the things that made it feel like a little bit of an extra challenge. It’s like, Jesus, they’re not phoning this in, I really want to bring my A-game here. Also, by the way, it was also a real pleasure working on this. Because I’ve worked on a ton of different shows and movies now. And I’ve had a very drastic swing of experiences from show to show. And it was really nice working on this show so that was nice as well.”
House of the Dragon has wrapped filming and is set to release on HBO Max in 2022.
