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Friday, September 30, 2022
The Walking Dead series finale is “a pretty amazing episode”
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Thursday, September 29, 2022
Glass Candle Dialogue: House of the Dragon Season 1, Episode 6 – The Princess and the Queen
This week’s dialogue takes Petra and I ten years into the future, as we debate which characters the time jump worked for and for which it didn’t; the introduction of the new generation of Targaryen and Velaryon children; and what’s to come next episode.
Luka: Today we discuss what’s essentially a second premiere. It had about as much exposition as “Heirs of the Dragon” did, too. So there’s lots to talk about! First impressions?
Petra: I’m glad that the second generation of characters has been introduced, though the characterization of Alicent and Criston makes me question just what point the first five episodes served; they seem like completely different characters now, and I don’t quite get the sense that the first half of the season served as their villain origin stories so much as total non-sequiturs. What about you?
Luka: It might have been my favorite episode so far, partly because at last things are getting more recognizably “Dance”-y. As for getting to know the kids, to me it made it feel more like the early episodes of Game of Thrones, weirdly, in a good way. But I want to zero in on the other thing you said. My experience was the opposite with the time jump, but I’ve heard a lot of people have taken issue with it, so I’m not shocked or anything of the sort. To me, though, the place we find Alicent and Criston seems like the natural evolution of where we left them in “We Light the Way,” following that same trajectory but with ten years of bitterness poured on top of what was quite a mess already. You didn’t feel they made connection clear enough?
Petra: I suppose what feels disjointed to me is that the first five episodes made me sympathize with Alicent and Criston, but in episode six they’re both outright villains. I don’t want to overstate what this new dynamic is, since we’ve only seen it for one episode, but Alicent hates Rhaenyra for her sexual impropriety and for her fear for her children’s safety. Criston is apparently still bitter about that one time he chose to soil his honor for Rhaenyra and regretted it. So, I’m thinking back to Alicent being a self-harming teenager wanting everyone to get along and Criston being a kind, supportive upstart knight and I don’t see that these sympathetic starting points were important to understand their current positions on Team Slut Shame. I can understand it intellectually, but it doesn’t emotionally resonate with me.
Luka: Oh, I find that fascinating. It worked for me, especially with Ser Criston, perhaps because his issues with Rhaenyra are less complicated than Alicent’s. In the case of the queen, just by reading the source material I’d have expected her characterization in this episode to be her starting point, so I enjoyed seeing that turned into more of an arc, starting at a very different place but inevitably leading here. Which brings me to you saying you don’t feel like their sympathetic starting points were important to understand where they ended up. I’d argue the opposite: Alicent and especially Ser Criston are raging assholes now, but I think it’s much more interesting to see how they arrived at this point rather than it being their starting point. I’m aware that’s not what you’re suggesting; you’re saying you hoped the adaptation would make them less villainous. And honestly, even after everything in this episode, I feel like they’ve done that, especially with Alicent, because we at least understand how she got here, why she feels the way she does. She’s losing her goddamn mind to frustration, solitude and being surrounded by so many weirdos, including her own children. I don’t think I’d have remotely gotten that without the work done the first five episodes. Not just in terms of her own character, but of the erosion of her relationship with Rhaenyra, and how it’s grown into such a bitter disaster of a rivalry.
Petra: My opinion may evolve over time, but listening to Alicent tell Aegon that his and his siblings’ lives will be forfeit once Rhaenyra comes into power, I just didn’t buy it. Otto told her that Rhaenyra would kill her children in one conversation (that we saw) and now that is her rationale for making Aegon king. Jealousy over sexual freedom is definitely present, but that’s a secondary force, I feel, to fear for her children’s safety. I would have liked episodes the first half of the season to establish the basis for Alicent’s belief that Rhaenyra is brutal enough to preemptively kill kiddos.
Luka: My question is, then, did you buy it last episode? Because the green dress entrance doesn’t really work, I don’t think, if you don’t buy that Alicent believed her father telling her Rhaenyra will have to off little Aegon.
Petra: Good question. I did buy the green dress entrance last episode, though less because of the danger her children were in than because she believed Rhaenyra saw her as a pawn who could be lied to and manipulated.
Luka: Otto said it very intelligently, by the way: he didn’t say Rhaenyra is chomping at the bit to kill Alicent’s children; I don’t think Alicent would have believed that (back then, anyway.) Otto said that Rhaenyra will be forced to do it if she wants to get into power. Which is much more believable, regardless of Rhaenyra’s morality or, more relevantly, what Alicent may think of Rhaenyra’s morality… which isn’t much by that point anyway, considering everything that’d just happened. This may be beside the point, but it could easily be a situation not unlike the one Alicent finds herself at the end of the episode; “the queen makes a wish” and that somehow results in Larys killing his own kin. Did Alicent order that hit? No. Would she have? I don’t think so; I think she’s genuinely horrified (though of course not enough to confess and condemn Larys; it’s pretty clear she’s a moralistic hypocrite, which I’m enjoying.) Now, ten years on, Alicent may even believe, on a good day, that Rhaenyra couldn’t kill Alicent’s children herself. But does she believe that, say, Daemon wouldn’t do it, or any other supporter of Rhaenyra? I certainly think Daemon would do it. It’s moved on from a purely personal question to one with political ramifications, although though it’s still rooted on their own prejudices and judgements; which is why I still feel we needed that first half of the season.
Petra: The strongest aspect of Alicent’s characterization, in my opinion, is her preoccupation with Rhaenyra’s sex life, because that was the element that was established and developed most thoroughly from the first episode to the fifth. If we’d seen Viserys order someone’s tongue ripped out for calling Rhaenys the Queen Who Never Was, for instance, or heard Rhaenyra talk about how harshly she’d have dealt with Queen Nymeria’s opposition while Alicent was reading her the history book, then Alicent’s fervor would have felt justified, and those first five episodes of backstory would have felt more worthwhile to me. What did you think about other aspects of the time jump? Like saying hi and goodbye to Laena Velaryon so quickly?
Luka: If you’re gonna tell me Laena worked better for you that’s gonna be hilarious, because while Alicent and Ser Criston worked perfectly for me, I believe the scant time we spend with Laena, and to a lesser extent Laenor, are the biggest misses of the season. Harwin also appeared briefly, but I felt like we got just what we needed from him and he served his function well, especially this episode. Honestly, scratch Laenor too: by the end of this episode I feel like I have a full grasp of him; we’ve had time to spend with him and he’s still around, unlike his sister. Nanna Blondell did wonderfully, just as Savannah Steyn did last week, but this is the part of the story where I truly felt we needed to bridge the gap better between “We Light the Way” and “The Princess and the Queen.” That said, I enjoyed their story very much, including her death, and meeting Baela and Rhaena was delightful… but I just wish we’d gotten more of it!
Petra: I liked Laena a lot too, and her death was extremely affecting, especially Vhagar’s hesitancy to kill her. However… *drum roll* I didn’t feel like I needed more time with her! It would have been nice, if they’d moved her death further down the timeline somehow so we got to spend more time with her, but I don’t feel like I needed a full episode of her and Daemon road-tripping across Essos, you know? It was interesting to see Daemon as a family man, though.
Luka: Oh, disagreeing is fun! I knew Laena couldn’t be a character going forward, because a lot of developments to come hinge on her death, so I can understand why we didn’t see that much of her. And yet: part of me clings to the little we knew about her from Fire and Blood, you know? We got some of it; although I wanted to see her claim Vhagar, having Blondell’s Laena speak proudly of it to her daughter and then telling Daemon she wants to die like a dragonrider worked wonderfully as a salve for that absence. Still, it’s a shame we’ll never get to see her do anything but flirt with Daemon before jumping forward to being his wife with two kids; it’s even more abrupt than if we had jumped to this episode’s Alicent directly from “The Rogue Prince,” when she’s betrothed to Viserys. But, honestly, what I’ll miss most of all is Rhaenyra and Laena becoming “friends and more”, as it’s put in Fire and Blood. However they would have decided to interpret that, platonically or romantically, I wanted to see it. As I say this, I realize none of this would’ve been remotely crucial for the future, but still: although it’s not a particularly serious crticism, it IS my largest criticism of the season so far. It doesn’t look like they’re planning on doing flashbacks at this point, at least according to Condal in one of his latest interviews (“It’s not a flashback kind of show”), but if they change their mind and eventually do some I’d love to see more of Laena with Daemon, Rhaenyra and her brother Laenor. Seeing the couples together would’ve been nice, since it’s pretty clear in “The Princess and the Queen” that they’d been close, or at least on the loop, at some point.
Petra: I mourn the fact that we’ll never have a threesome between Daemon, Laena and Rhaenyra. I was also hoping the show would expand upon Rhaenyra becoming “fond and more” of Laena. Before the season started, I remember telling you that I thought they’d consolidate Rhaenyra and Daemon’s lovers, because including all of them would spread our emotional investment thin, as viewers. Obviously I was wrong about character consolidation, but I must say, I think I was right about spreading the characters thin. Mysaria, Rhea, Laena, Daemon, Criston and Harwin are a lot of relationship partners to go through in six episodes. That said, the show is expanding on other characters in a really interesting way. Like Aemond.
Luka: How have we talked this much without mentioning Aemond? He’s your guy! I couldn’t be happier by his introduction. A vague spoiler alert, I guess, but they certainly could have characterized him as a psycho from the start and many book readers wouldn’t have batted an eye, I don’t think. Instead we got an awkward bullied kid, and I kinda loved that. In fact, I enjoyed Alicent’s three kids much more than I thought I would. Helaena now has, you know, a personality, which is an improvement over the source material; but, more than that, she may be a prophetic dreamer as well as a bug nerd? And Aegon’s an entitled prick but, you know what, he’s funny to watch. And poor Aemond… I imagine you must have loved him too?
Petra: I believe I preemptively chose my favorite character well. All we get about Aemond’s personality as a child in Fire and Blood is that he’s half the size of Aegon but twice as fierce, but then later on he acts like a guy with a huge chip on his shoulder. I like that House of the Dragon is establishing the sense of inferiority that he’s overcompensating for later on. It’ll also make the emotional pay off next episode (#NoSpoilers!) all the more satisfying. Aegon is an enjoyable son of a bitch who’s entitled, as you say, but doesn’t seem to want to hurt anyone. And I’m very glad they gave Helaena a personality. I’ll wait and see how, or if, her character develops further, but neurodivergent, possibly prophetic bug girl is good enough for now.
Luka: Of course, we’ll get new actors for them in a few episodes time, but certain statements from the showrunners have made me optimistic about all these kids. Apparently they will get to have scenes from their own perspectives; we’ll get to know them better in a similar way we did with Rhaenyra and Alicent as children the first five episodes. So I’m excited for all that. Especially with what we know’s coming next episode. I don’t want to give much away, but… yeah! Are you looking forward to it?
Petra: I really am. Going from the preview, we’re finally getting the catspaw dagger kerfuffle, which has been hinted at since the teaser trailer, and, of course, Aemond’s plotline is going to be great, especially, as I said, after the build up we got this episode. You?
Luka: Aemond got the most character development and setup for the future, out of the five kids. I’m excluding Joffrey, who’s only a baby so we can’t ask that much of him, the poor fellow, or Daeron, who hasn’t even been introduced yet (He should be away in Oldtown at this point anyway.) So, yes, I’m excited to see Aemond’s story continue. There are two back-to-back scenes I really need the show to do well next episode, and they are two of the few moments in Fire and Blood that switch from a traditional history book to an almost novelistic approach, with tons of dialogue and moment-to-moment action; one is Aemond’s big moment and the other is the immediate consequences of that, which they’re really playing up for drama, judging by trailers.
Petra: Ah yes, a scene reminiscent of Cersei’s line, “We have a wolf.”
Luka: That one. There are other things I’m less sure of how they’re gonna addapt or if there’s even a way to do it well, especially regarding Laenor, but we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves too much. I’m eager to talk about all of it more but that’ll have to be next week! I don’t want to spoil too much. Any parting thoughts on “The Princess and the Queen?
Petra: The tension’s thick and it’s about to get thicker.
Luka: Thicker than the Pink Dread.
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House of the Dragon Season 2 filming begins in Spring 2023 at the latest, in Spain!
House of the Dragon will begin filming season two as early as Spring of 2023, returning to the Spanish city of Cáceres!
As reported today by local Extremaduran newspaper Hoy, the old town of Cáceres will depict King’s Landing yet again in the second season of House of the Dragon, as it has for the first one and as it once did for the last few seasons of Game of Thrones.
HBO will return to Cáceres next spring, from March to June. Of course, that doesn’t mean they will be filming three straight months on the city; the production arrives weeks and sometimes months earlier to make the necessary preparations before any shooting actually takes place; filming is expected to take place around April and May. Nevertheess, three months is a significant production window, which probably means we’ll see a lot more of the streets of the capital next season.
In Game of Thrones, Cáceres was also used for Oldtown, which we could see next season, although it’s certainly not a must judging by the source material alone. It’s fair to assume Cáceres will mostly be used to give life to the Westerosi capital around which most of the House of the Dragon story takes place, even more than it did for Game of Thrones.
These news come just a few days after the announcement of the largest European Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire convention event, which will indeed take place on Cáceres, Spain: “Cáceres City of Dragons.” It’s pretty clear the city has decided to invest on HBO’s Game of Thrones propertry as much as HBO is investing on the city.
The broader interest piece of news here is, of course, that we can reasonable expect production for season two to kick off in early early Spring next year. Spain is rarely the first place they film at, with production usually starting on their UK headquarters. There has been doubt about how fast season two could come into production with no certainty of a season renewal until after the series premiere aired. The news of a departing showrunner didn’t help expectations.
It’s too early to say when we’ll actually get to see season two, as post-production is as huge and time-consuming as production for shows like these and HBO has matters of schedule to consider as well. Still, it’s nice to see House of the Dragon is moving into season two as soon as they can, considering the circumstances, even if we won’t probbly get to watch the next season until 2024. And, of course, when they arrive in Cáceres we’ll be here to provide you with every piece of news from filming that leaks out.
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Families grieve and conflict brews in 15 new stills from episode 7
The new promotional stills from episode 7, taken by Ollie Upton, show us Targaryens and Velaryons attending Laena’s funeral together and hint at yet further family dysfunction.
Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine), Helaena Targaryen (Evie Allen), Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), Rhaenys Velaryon (Eve Best), Baela Targaryen (Shani Smethurst) and Vaemond Velaryon (Wil Johnson) solemnly look on.
Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) holds her sons, Jacaerys (Leo Hart) and Lucerys (Harvey Sadler)
Corlys Velaryon stares into the middle distance and clutches his grandson, Lucerys
A stoic Rhaenys Velaryon comforts her granddaughter, Baela
The newly reinstated Hand of the King, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), gives Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) the side eye.
Laenor Velaryon (John MacMillan) grieves for his sister.
King Viserys and his brother, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) have … well, I’d say a heart to heart, but that seems unlikely between these two.
The newly widowed Daemon Targaryen smirks.
The disintegrating King Viserys clutches a walking stick with an ornate golden dragon for a handle.
The Queen of Green looks worried in the royal carriage.
Ser Qarl Correy (Arty Froushan) looks conniving.
Alicent Hightower and Aegon Targaryen (Ty Tennant) stare at someone or something off camera.
Corlys and Rhaenys Velaryon protect Baela and Rhaena Targaryen (Eva Ossei-Gerning). They might be protecting another member of their family too. Who could possibly say?
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Wednesday, September 28, 2022
House of the Dragon viewership increases another 3% for latest episode
House of the Dragon ratings continue to climb six weeks into its first season.
According to Variety, episode 6, “The Princess and the Queen” drew 3% more viewers than episode 5, continuing a steady rise in viewership, as episode 5 likewise saw a 3% increase, and episode 4 saw a 5% increase.
As has been noted, these statistics do not account for everything (c’mon, pirating statistics!), but I do think it’s a reasonable inference that many Game of Thrones fans who were hesitant to give House of the Dragon a try, whether because of disappointment for season 8 or because of the tepid track records of prequels in general, are starting to tune in, now that the critical and audience reception has been so positive.
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Tuesday, September 27, 2022
House of the Dragon Post-Mortem of “The Princess and the Queen”
The tension (and the heartbreak) is ramping up as we head into the second half of House of the Dragon’s first season. “The Princess and the Queen” introduced new characters, killed off existing ones, and had us questioning where our loyalties should lie. The drama will only get more intense as we hurtle toward the finale, so let’s shout “dracarys” and bathe ourselves in the fire of today’s interviews and videos!
Speaking with Collider, Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke discuss Rhaenyra and Alicent’s motivations, and how their relationship changes over time. Says Cooke, “It’s incredibly bad parenting [by Otto Hightower]. Alicent has been groomed, from a very early age, solely to further her father’s political ambitions. When Alicent is used as a pawn, she’s a child. She doesn’t know any better. When she’s used as a pawn in Otto’s plan, it really drives a wedge between Rhaenyra and Alicent, that chasm only grows bigger and wider, as the series goes on.” D’Arcy adds, “That’s the whole thing. It’s that early relationship that enables feelings of betrayal, of loss, of resentment, and of jealousy. The foundation for all of that is in the childhood friendship.”
Rhaenyra not only loses that friendship, she also loses the freedom to live life on her own terms once she bears the weight of being heir to the throne. D’Arcy explains, “What’s really interesting is that Rhaenyra has grown up with an expectation that there will be, at some point, a brother who will take on the heirdom and carry the lineage forward. She’s grown up always knowing that it’s not her destiny and that she will always be, to some extent, set aside as an aside. When we first meet her, a lot of her freedom and spirit comes from an identity built around that. It all starts unraveling, the moment that suddenly the rules change.”
They continue, “What I find really moving about the character is when she receives the heirdom, she never understands that the rules have now changed for her. Things that she would have gotten away with yesterday, have completely different ramifications today. No one tells her that this role will require sacrifice, so she learns that the hard way, over years, through the series.”
Read the rest here.
Someone who takes advantage of the conflict between Alicent and Rhanyra is Larys Strong. Matthew Needham defends his character to Vulture, saying “Everyone’s got very villainous qualities. I’m playing him like a hero, but I think that’s maybe just what I have to do to motivate it. But I don’t see him as a villain, really. I’m not playing that. He’s got, in my head anyway, quite a noble ambition, but it’s probably a sick one from an outsider’s point of view.”
Speaking of sick, what does Needham think about Larys’ kinslaying? “He gives [Alicent] the thing she wants in a way she never expected. He makes himself indispensable to her, really; he ties them together in blood in this extraordinary act of will. To do away with his family like that in order to give her what she wants — to bring her father back, to strengthen that part of the game…I don’t think he’s a chaotic sort of person; I don’t think he’s messy. It’s very, very deliberate. He might seem completely mad, but it’s very methodical.”
Needham elaborates on Larys’ ability to kill the brother who looked out for and protected him by saying, “I think his views on nature are important. You can either see nature as harmony and things living in perfect balance with each other, or you can see elements of nature as being a succession of tiny murders. For something to grow, something has to die — that sort of thing. Larys talks about how love is a downfall. It’s not that he’s without love; he’s just able to overcome it. He’s playing life on life’s terms. He’s able to play the game, and the game isn’t won by sitting around the campfire, singing ‘Kumbaya.'”
Check out the full interview at Vulture.
Showrunner Ryan Condal made the rounds with several to discuss the time jump that kicks off the second half of the season. In Entertainment Weekly, he shares why they decided to make the aftermath of Rhaenyra’s labor a focal point. “We knew we wanted to begin with Rhaenyra giving birth because it felt like that was the thing that she was most afraid of coming off of the death of her mother in the first episode. The reason that she really did not want to get married and sold off into aristocratic marriage pacts was because she was terrified of dying, going the same way that her mother did.” Condal continues, “We made this decision to make poor Rhaenyra, fresh off of childbirth, have to haul herself out of bed and then drag herself still bleeding to the queen’s apartment. It’s a combination of where we wanted to be with the characters, servicing the book, and then finding a really cinematic way to tell that story.”
Condal also explains the choice to flesh out the character of Larys Strong. “We just decided that Larys was smart enough in the history to never to get himself written down into many of the accounts too much, but we knew he was a schemer. We knew he was operating in those places, but he was wise. So nobody really knew what he was actually up to…we took what we knew about the character and placed him into interesting dynamics, situations that had political things to be lost and gained. How is he going to play and what is this person actually gonna do?” Quite a lot, it seems. And probably not much of it good.
Head to EW for more.
Speaking to Variety, Condal talks about Laena why they changed her manner of death. “Laena’s a valkyrie. She’s a dragon rider. We met that little girl back in Episode 2; that little girl went on a couple years later to claim the biggest dragon in the world. It felt like she wouldn’t want to go out the way that the history book said. Unfortunately, because of the nature of the season and the storytelling, we didn’t get to spend as much time as I think we would have preferred to with Laena. We had to keep the story moving. So we wanted to give her a memorable out that felt active and in her character.”
He also shares his thoughts on the criticism of Criston Cole’s killing of Laenor’s lover, Joffrey Lonmouth, in episode five as a “Bury Your Gays” trope. “People are going to react how they’re going to react. First of all, that was the story in the book. It was handled, again, slightly differently: Joffrey is murdered by Criston Cole out of a jealous, wounded rage at a tournament. We just had him do it out in the open, and watch Cole’s frustration over the slight that he feels like he’s been levied with. It’s a brutal world. It’s a violent world. Cole has exposed himself, I think, as a certain kind of character. It wasn’t done without thought. I know people are going to react as they react, but, you know, that’s the story we’re telling.”
The rest of the article is worth a read over at Variety.
In The Wall Street Journal, Condal again addresses the time jumps necessary for keeping the plot moving. “It’s the story of a generational conflict: Two young women are forced into arranged marriages early in life, then grow up to have children, who grow up to cause problems for everyone else. Those seeds need years and years to grow. We decided to make hard time jumps, and trust the audience to come along for the ride, knowing that they’d be following the characters, not necessarily the actors. I said to HBO, ‘Look, I know this is something you’ve never done before, but The Crown is a model for how it could work.'”
As for whether we will see the younger versions of Rhaenyra and Alicent again, Condal explains, “It’s not a flashback kind of show. The past is the past. But anything is certainly possible in future seasons.” He goes on to discuss the ease of casting the older actors and how they found their younger counterparts. “That process was actually less fraught because we had two wonderful actors present themselves right out of the gate. Then we had to find people who looked like them but were also tremendous actors. In casting young actors, the sweet spot is the age when they’re coming out of drama school, in their early 20s. Earlier than that, you’re relying on people that have a natural talent, and it’s more of an open, general casting. You’re watching thousands of videos and holding up photos next to photos. It was a long process to find the right combination of those people.”
Go here for the full interview.
In this week’s “Inside the Episode,” showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, Producer/Writer Sara Hess, and cast members Fabien Frankel, Emma D’Arcy, Matt Smith, and Matthew Needham discuss shifting allegiances and shifting perspectives after the 10 year time jump.
In case you missed it, here is the preview for episode seven:
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Unsullied Recap House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 6 “The Princess and the Queen”
Guns do not exist in Westeros. But by God, there are plenty of men shooting bullets.
Holy shit. Where did all these kids come from? Who the hell are they? Where the hell are your parents? And who are these little dark-headed shits? The show skipped ahead ten years because they knew we had no interest in watching a full season of Romper Room. Good move, showrunners.
My name is Oz of House Oz. And you are correct… no books. Just a normal guy finally sitting down with a grilled cheese and a bowl of tomato soup on Sunday night to watch another episode of How to Childcare in Fantasy Medieval Times.
Seriously, can you imagine the moms of today trying to navigate what your kids can and cannot do outside in Westeros? It’s not like you can hand them the iPad and send them to their dungeon.
Hell no… you would be forced to let them go run and play while every other living person has a sword or dagger or a bow and arrow they could trip and fall on. Not to mention the flying fire-breathers who mistake children for lambs when they are really damn hungry. And don’t even get me started on the dirtballs trying to pick up young girls… oh she’s 12?? Let’s get married!!
My mom would never let me out of the castle. And you folks are gross.
We start with another childbirth scene and let me tell you something my dudes… there is most likely no pain you have ever felt that compares to the equivalent of passing a basketball through an opening in your body. I mean, I admittedly have never given birth so I don’t know from experience. This is just an educated guess after watching the show and having witnessed two live childbirths.
Laenor tells Rhaenyra about that one time he stumped his toe and no, just shut up and keep walking, man. It’s not the same.
Alicent wants to see the kid IMMEDIATELY now dammit! My first thought was, “oh shit.. is she killing them as soon as they pop out?” But nope. She just wants to see what the kid looks like and make snide remarks to the gay man.
And who is the curly-haired, buffed-up bearded Kenny G dude and what is he doing in there?
Ohhhhhhh. Gotcha.
Laenor dooms the kid even further by naming him “Joffrey” as Viserys continues to ignore the obvious. And who could blame him, right? At this point, I assume he’s just happy to still be breathing, and a problem is not a problem until someone makes it a problem. You think he’s going to? Oh hell no.
Next up, all the boys get together for the long-awaited live version of How to Train Your Dragon. Aegon and Rhaenyra’s two boys gang up on Aemond who apparently didn’t get a flying flame-thrower for Christmas and present him with the Pink Dread. And now we know that lipstick on a pig in Westeros is not just a pig. It’s a dragon.
Aemond then attempts to obtain his own pet and comes close to being barbecued and this is why mom won’t let you out of the house. He runs back to his mom who is hanging out with her sweet daughter. She assures Aemond that he will have a dragon to which Helaena states that he will have to close an eye and I think we know what that means, maybe?
Alicent makes her way to King Skeletor to explain the issues with the dark-haired kiddos which he quickly dismisses because it’s hobby time, honey. She then goes to Criston Cole who has clearly been moisturizing and exfoliating daily for ten years.
After discussing genealogy, DNA and beauty care secrets with Criston, Alicent heads (no pun intended) over to find Aegon and let me just say this… judge not, lest ye be judged. Be honest… every dude reading this knows that at some point or another they have stood on a windowsill of a castle completely naked pleasuring themselves in the sun while overlooking their vast kingdom. Dare say you haven’t and I will call you the perjurer you are.
Alicent has apparently seen this behavior before and goes straight into why he must challenge the succession or likely be killed by Rhaenyra once she takes over. And it’s got to be coming soon (woops, I did it again).
We travel across the pond and the annual Pentos Air Show is in full swing and is phenomenal!
Daemon and pregnant Laena are offered residency for their children and oddly enough, Daemon is the one who is more interested in the offer. Settling down and having children will do that to you sometimes. But Laena would rather have their daughters raised where she was and wants to go back.
Back over in dysfunction village, Harwin “Kenny G” Strong and Criston “Oil-of-Olay” Cole get into it over equal treatment of the boys and a comment about a “son” leading to a walloping which will most certainly require Criston making a run to Ulta to grab some concealer.
However, it was mission accomplished as it pretty much confirmed the rumors about Harwin and Rhaenyra and subsequently leads to Lyonel attempting to resign as Hand of the King.
Viserys shunts the resignation but agrees to let Lyonel escort Harwin back to Harrenhal. And man, did Harrenhal look awesome. Larys passes that info on to Alicent who vocalizes how much she misses ostracized Otto but doesn’t realize that she’s telling someone who has motives of his own. Larys = Littleflower. Wonder what he’s been doing the past ten years besides gardening?
Rhaenyra realizes that none of this is good for her family and offers up the quickest fix and the oldest trick in the Westorosi book… a wedding! This one would be between her eldest son and Alicent’s daughter and I’m just guessing she’s not going to be cool with that, considering.
Back across the pond, we have yet another childbirth taking place and this one isn’t going so well. Daemon does not tell Laena about that one time he bruised his knee and how bad that hurt. He also does not give the ok for Laena to sacrifice her life to save the baby. Laena then makes her way down to her dragon (Vhagar, I think) and gives the order so that she may die a dragonrider’s death. The hesitation of the dragon made the scene pretty freakin’ intense.
Littleflower makes a deal, cuts some tongues, and bakes Lyonel and Harwin which was not the soul intent of Alicent. Wait, this fucker cooked his own family? That man is playing the Game. The bee is buzzing my friends.
Rhaenyra sees the writing on the wall, loads up the truck and moves to the Stone with kids, Laenor and new Laenor-lover in tow. The wise sailor indeed flees the storm as it gathers.
Initial Thoughts:
Great episode once I got past the land of confusion. The beginning I will admit was somewhat disorienting with all the moving kids and new actors and took me a minute to gather what was going on. But once we got all the players straight, it was on.
I’m not sure why it took kid #3 before the peeps were convinced about Harwin/Rhaenyra but whatever.
On that note, it probably would have been good to include Kenny G Harwin a little more prominently in the first eps. I realize he made a brief appearance, but to be such a major factor in this episode’s predominant mess would have made it a little more engaging.
I was not surprised to see Daemon and Laena together after where the last ep. left off. However, perhaps a little context would have been good. It wasn’t that long ago when she was like 8 years old (or looked it at least).
And how the hell is Viserys still alive? I keep saying this, but the end must be soon. There’s only so much saving a leech can do, and this guy has to be on his last leg.
See you all next week for another edition of “Recaps with Oz.”
Until then, enjoy your week, press on, do something kind for someone, and may there always be peace in your realm.
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Monday, September 26, 2022
House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 6 “The Princess and the Queen” Recap
This week I sit the Recap Throne as we leap forward a decade in time to reconnect with our cast of maladjusted, well-dressed royals, some of whom have been aged up via recasting, some via prosthetics, and some of whom haven’t aged at all.
Spoiler note: This recap and the comments section may contain mild spoilers from George R.R. Martin’s novels and Westeros histories, whether or not that material has appeared on the show yet. If you have not read the books and wish to remain completely Unsullied, we encourage you to check out our non-book-reader recap by Oz of Thrones!
We open on Rhaenyra, now played by Emma D’Arcy, lying in the birthing bed as her mother once did, bringing yet another Joffrey into the world amidst lots of squishy sound effects. Rhaneyra is told that the queen wishes to see the newborn post haste and so, in one long take, she shuffles laboriously to Alicent’s chambers where we see that her former BFF, now played by Olivia Cooke, has upgraded from anxiety-ridden teenager to full on Evil Stepmother.
The issue is obvious: the brown-haired, snow white (see what I did there?) baby Joffrey looks nothing like Rhaenyra’s husband, Ser Laenor, now played by John MacMillan, but bears a striking resemblance to Ser Harwin Strong. King Viserys, who we might as well call King Crypt Keeper at this point, doesn’t see it, of course, but Alicent has made it her life’s mission to expose Rhaenyra’s sons’ bastardy.
Speaking of sons, Aegon and Aemond Targaryen and Jacaerys and Lucerys Velaryon attend a class in the dragonpit on dragon management and we get a sense of what the dynamic is between the boys. Surprisingly, their mothers’ rivalry hasn’t entirely trickled down to them, as Aegon, Jacaerys and Lucerys have teamed up to pick on Aemond, the only dragonless one among them, by presenting him with pig they call the Pink Dread. Oh, those crazy kids. It’s all fun and games until … well, you know.
Aemon briefly attempts to claim a dragon before wisely high-tailing it out of there and being delivered, ashen-faced (in every sense of the phrase) to his mother. I should mention that just before this we get a sweet scene between Alicent and her daughter, Helaena, who’s absorbed in her insect collection. The implication, I think, is that Helaena is on the spectrum, though, of course, Alicent has no way of knowing this or of making sense of her daughter’s behavior. When Alicent asks Helaena why a centipede/millipede has eyes if it can’t see, Helaena explains that, “it is beyond our understanding.” “I suppose you’re right,” Alicent says, “Some things just are.”
Anyway, Alicent reprimands Aemond but assures him that he will have a dragon one day to which Helaena replies, seemingly to her centipede/millipede, “he’ll have to close an eye.” Oh, the foreshadowing is on point this episode, isn’t it?
Alicent attempts to make Viserys look at the Punnett square she’s drawn for him, but he refuses, so she vents her frustrations to Ser Criston Cole (who has not aged a day in ten years) and to her eldest son, whom she finds masturbating on a windowsill. We see that Otto’s parting words to her last episode have left a huge impression. She takes it as a given, now, that Rhaenyra will kill her children once she ascends the throne, and that it doesn’t matter if Aegon chooses not to challenge her succession (as he proposes before she grabs his face) because he threatens her legitimacy as queen merely by living and breathing.
Meanwhile, in Pentos, Daemon and a heavily pregnant Laena are living in a state of relative domestic bliss. Their host, Prince Reggio, offers them a permanent residence in Pentos in exchange for protection from the Triarchy, and, oddly enough, it’s Laena who’s biting at the bit to return to Westeros and Daemon who would prefer to stay far away from “the political scheming, the endless shifting of loyalties and succession” in Westeros. The best way I can make sense of this is to liken Daemon to a recovering addict who wants to avoid the stimulant that brings out his worst self. Meanwhile, Laena, understandably, wants their daughters to grow up in Westeros because, of course, what could be sadder than a Targaryen girl growing up in Essos?
Back in the Red Keep, tensions boil over in the training yard as Criston Cole and Harwin Strong play out their rivalry through Aegon and Jacaerys. In fairness to Harwin, he does speak out against the sparring match but, still, his preference for the “Velaryon” boys is obvious. When Criston implies that he cares for Jacaerys like a son, Harwin ostensibly confirms this insinuation by punching Criston bloody.
This act winds up having greater consequences than anything else said or done this episode. Lyonel attempts to resign as Hand as a result and, when Viserys does not accept his resignation, he settles for escorting Harwin back to Harrenhal. Larys, who also doesn’t appear to have aged, relays this information to Alicent who wishes out loud for her father to be the Hand once again, unknowingly clutching a monkey paw as she does so.
Rhaenyra finally seems to understand that her unconventional marital arrangement with Laenor is putting their lives in danger and berates her husband when he expresses a desire to go off to war in the Stepstones again. Sensing herself backed into a corner, she attempts to mend the decade-long rift with Alicent by offering to marry her eldest son to Alicent’s daughter. Though the strength of her proposal is offset by her breastmilk leaking through her dress, the real reason that Alicent refuses her offer is because she can’t very well stage a coup if her daughter has married into the line she plans to oust.
Things aren’t going so well across the Narrow Sea either, as Laena’s labor has become obstructed. The Maester or obstetrician or whoever delivers babies in Pentos offers Daemon a similar choice to the one Mellos gave Viserys: cut open the mother in the hope of saving the baby. Daemon refuses, objectively proving himself a better husband than Viserys. Who would have ever thought? Laena wants to die a dragonrider’s death, as she told Daemon earlier this episode, and waddles out to Vhagar (presumably after parkouring down the castle walls to evade detection) and commands her dragon to end her misery. In the most moving scene of the episode, in my opinion, Vhagar hesitates to kill her rider. It’s not until Daemon emerges from the castle, calling after his wife that Vhagar seems to understand the situation, and engulfs Laena Velaryon in flames.
The episode wraps up with Rhaenyra moving her household to Dragonstone and Lyonel and Harwin Strong dying in a fire started by some mute convicts who took Larlys up on a deal. The newly minted kinslayer monologues about the futility of love to Alicent who is horrified to learn that her desire to have her father back at court resulted in the death of two men.
Larlys sniffs a malvales, the very same flower he used to ingratiate himself to the queen last episode. Cut to black. Roll credits.
Stray thoughts
- The plight of dragonless children was an interesting point of emphasis this episode. Poor Aemond and Rhaena.
- I think this was the first time a character noticed the literal yet highly symbolic rats gnawing away at the the might of the Red Keep.
- As the strongest man in the realm, Harwin should really have rendered Criston comatose after getting so many punches in, right?
- Laenor’s line, “The wise sailor flees the storm as it gathers” feels like a more passive variation of his father’s saying from episode 2, “To elude a storm you can either sail into it or around it. But you must never await its coming.” Make of that what you will.
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