"The only thing that could tear down the House of the Dragon ... was itself."
Hello everyone!
I bet you have!
Or at least, you should have in any event haha. Because the best epic fantasy series to air on television this fall (for now) has just wrapped its first season and I AM HYPED.
Okay, there were mistakes. Tactical and story-wise, but that doesn't mean that the execution wasn't magical, however.
Considering we're coming off the horrendous last season of Game of Thrones, people naturally went into this new Westeros-based show with a lot of trepidation, myself included. Heck, I actively tried NOT to get excited, but ended up being so just the same.
I can't help it. I've ALWAYS wondered what it was like during the Targaryen hay-day, when they had all those dragons and were literally on top of the world.
If you're just as curious, dust that saddle off and let's soar above the clouds into House of the Dragon!
Links to other HotD-related posts can be found at the bottom of this page, as always with my connected reviews.
On with the show! I'll briefly walk us through what happened during season one and then share some of my thoughts and opinions at the very end, though overall I can tell you right now I enjoyed this one SO MUCH MORE than a lot of what's on TV right now. HBO was NOT playing when they buckled down for it, and it shows in every single delivery.
So we start this whole she-bang with Jaehaerys Targaryen figuring there's WAY too many Targaryens around and the succession is so muddled he can't possibly make heads or tails of it, so he calls the famed Great Council which sets a precedent for a whole lot of woe that befalls Westeros afterwards: in that the lords skip the oldest in general in favour of the oldest MALE, which is how Viserys bags the Iron Throne.
Nearly a decade afterwards, we finally meet our players at a tournament the king organizes because he's so happy his queen is about to give birth to a son (as you can tell, these kings are ALL suckers for their own hubris), which naturally doesn't end well as he has to make a pretty gnarly call, unfortunately ending her life in the process, and the baby doesn't survive either.
Coupled with the fact that the Small Council are all over one another in trying to figure out what decisions to make, the Hand Otto Hightower deftly deflecting any REAL ones from coming to fruition, and the king's brother Daemon being a right ass, well, Viserys about has his fill. He exiles Daemon - his heir up until that point - and names his daughter Rhaenyra as the one who will ascend the Iron Throne after him. He even gets the Westerosi lords to swear, too!
Fat lot of good that does anybody, considering Daemon takes up residence on Dragonstone, the heir's ancestral seat (think Wales nowadays), the Stepstones which just so happen to be an entryway into the shipping lanes of King's Landing are under attack but no one's particularly worried about it, and all Rhaenyra's been doing is pouring wine and been told to go pick a new Kingsguard. Petulantly, maybe, she chooses Ser Criston Cole, previously the dude who beat Daemon, and the only one who's actually fought in battle.
This will come back to bite her but, right now it's the King's turn to shine, or more importantly the Hand's, who sends his teenage daughter Alicent to console a grieving Viserys (totally hoping she'll get into that bed, we see you Otto, we're not all Alicent and Viserys, trust us). Others are making a play too, namely Corlys Velaryon, Lord of the Tides and husband to the Queen Who Never Was, aka Rhaenys who was skipped during the Great Council.
They suggest marriage with their daughter Laena, not that Viserys is all that into marrying a twelve-year-old, but his problems (read: Daemon) are coming home to roost when word breaks his chaos-producing brother stole a dragon egg and plans to take a second wife. Otto thinks he's got things under control, but, lucky for him Rhaenyra comes to parlay so no one gets un-alived then; she's probably re-thinking it later when her dad proclaims he's marrying her BFF, though. She WISHES she could un-alive someone!
Sadly, three years on, that's still just a pipe dream and things are TENSE in the royal household what with Rhaenyra miffed about this whole, BFF-married-to-daddy deal (Alicent's also popped out a son and is once again pregnant), and Daemon and Corlys still at it at the Stepstones. But that's okay, we'll have a great hunt to celebrate and forget it all!
If only things were that easy ... Viserys just wants everyone to get along. Unfortunately, that's not how it usually works, and it works even less for Targaryens now that the Hightowers smell an ascension in their future with Aegon. So Rhaenyra is naturally unhappy, and clashes quite violently with her father before he assures her that, all things aside, he WILL support her as heir, and as a bonus she gets to choose her own consort, too.
This might have even brought him some peace if not for the fact that the pleas from the Stepstones are getting louder (not from Daemon, mind!), so in the end, the King caves and agrees to send help ... which of course pisses Daemon off. He wants to prove himself! He can do this! He can ... offer himself as bait so they defeat the mastermind behind the Triarchy's occupation?
No one ever said he isn't bonkers, this guy.
So here we are, the board pieces slowly moving into position, and the one constantly on the move seems to be Rhaenyra, on her consort quest, the hunt for which she cuts short when things get, er, messy (listen, you need to watch out for little kids playing with big swords), so she and her protector Ser Criston Cole return to King's Landing. They're just in time to witness the return of the crazy, the one and only Daemon Targaryen who, after being proclaimed King of the Narrow Sea, lays the crown at his brothers feet and is welcomed as a conquering hero.
The brothers reunited present an oafish and insulting picture, which makes Alicent feel even lonelier than before and there may even be a hint or two that she and Rhaenyra could potentially mend their friendship, which is lovely to see. If only ... because then Rhaenyra heads out on the town with her uncle whose plan seems to be to either shock her or seduce her, both of which he fails at because he has a sudden fit of consciousness and leaves her in the middle of a brothel.
Considering the fact Otto's had his spies on her, though, HE now knows all about it too, and because he's an idiot and overly arrogant, takes this news to Viserys. A hung-over Daemon doesn't dispute anything (even what he didn't do) and decides to sleep it off on the floor of the throne room after his brother banishes him AGAIN. Viserys then orders Rhaenyra to marry since he's got a big enough headache without her prancing around, and she retaliates that she will as soon as he fires Otto.
So, the King does just that and sends his daughter some anti-baby tea, just to be safe - turns out it's all for the best too because, surprise surprise, she DID in fact lose her V card that night, just not with Daemon. Oh no, she seduced her guard, Criston.
If this were a telenovela grandmothers would be clutching their pearls by now.
As it happens, we're the ones doing the clutching because Daemon's at it again, unable to NOT do anything for even one episode, murdering his wife (oh yeah, he's got one, he doesn't like her and she doesn't like him). This frees him of obligation so he can roll right back into King's Landing in time for Rhaenyra's marriage to Ser Laenor Velaryon, and his dragon Caraxes is hoping this might last longer than just an overnight stay. A dragon's gotta sleep, too.
Given this is a Westeros wedding, though, you KNOW it's not going to be easy. See, Laenor's actually gay, and he and Rhaenyra have an agreement: do their duty, then take lovers. She plans on it being Criston, as before, but Criston's over there losing his mind all over the place, suggesting she elope with him to Essos so they can live off cinnamon and oranges.
Dude. At least make it saffron if you're going for spices. Have SOME class.
She says no and it pisses Criston off; he later runs his mouth (in what he probably thinks is a brilliant moment but everyone watching is screaming at him TO SHUT UP ALREADY) to Alicent, which naturally pisses HER off, though I don't know why. She never asked Rhaenyra about anyone else, only Daemon, so her friend didn't actually lie. But, friend scorned or whatever, as she dusts off Hightower battle-cry green for the dress she's wearing to the feast, which even naive Viserys knows means SOMETHING.
He has no clue what it is, and he's got bigger problems anyway, because, in true Westeros tradition, things spiral spectacularly when Criston's mind switches off entirely and he brutally murders Laenor's lover mid-feast, then doesn't even get the chance for an honourable seppuku because Alicent stops him. Nothing will stop the wedding though, as Viserys just calls an audible and gets Rhaenyra and Laenor married ASAP, right before collapsing.
It is legit hard to be the king when you're surrounded by so many idiots.
This is where we experience the biggest time jump of the season. Now, there've been jumps throughout, from six months to three years etc, but this one spans TEN years, and we meet the adult versions (and actresses) of Rhaenyra and Alicent both.
At this point, Rhaenyra's got three sons by Laenor, though everyone and their deceased grandmother seems to know they're actually from her sworn sord, Harwin Strong. The man who I will henceforth name solely Crispin Cole even goads Harwin into a fight which all but proves this statement, too, resulting in dear ole dad, Hand of the King Lyonel Strong, yanking his chain and taking him to Harrenhal.
Unfortunately, this ends in their demise as Lionel's OTHER son, Larys, orchestrates a fire in which they both die, ostensibly at the wishes of Queen Alicent, but she's sufficiently horrified that viewers can kinda believe she didn't actually want anyone dead. She certainly wants Rhaenyra gone from the line of succession though, not that Viserys is listening to her about it (the line about the horse will never not be funny to me), and Rhaenyra eventually moves her family to Dragonstone to just get out from everybody's watchful eye.
But you're probably asking yourself: what about Daemon? Well, Daemon's married again, too, to Laena Velaryon, and they have twin daughters, Baela and Rhaena, as well as are expecting a third child and currently bopping around Pentos. Laena wants to go home, but Daemon wants to avoid Westeros politics (and his brother constantly ignoring him), so instead she goes into labour where they're at, forcing him to stare at the same decision Viserys needed to make with Aemma.
Daemon doesn't make it, but Laena takes it out of his hands anyway as she goes to her dragon Vhagar with the well-known DRACARYS command. Vhagar may not like it, but she likes Laena's suffering less, so, she does it.
This leads us directly to Laena's funeral on Driftmark where everyone is TRYING to be nice, but epically failing. Viserys tries reconciling with his brother, failing; Alicent's kids try to start being nice to Rhaenyra's kids, failing; Rhaenyra tries to be nice to people, also failing because they're not nice to her. So she says fuck this, goes after Daemon when she sees him hightail it away from the gathering, and they end up FINALLY consummating this relationship that's been brewing since she was old enough to figure out what went where.
While mum is busy entertaining uncle though, the kids are getting into trouble. Little Aemond, the only one without a dragon (probably with good reason, come to think of it) decides it'd be a smart idea to go and claim Vhagar right out from under everyone's noses. This means he effectively steals Rhaena's chance at trying the same, so naturally the kids get into a scuffle, it turns ugly, and Aemond gets slashes across one eye (in case you're wondering, his sister Helaena totally predicts this, too).
Alicent is out of her mind, demanding Lucerys' eye as payment, going so far as to telling Crispin to do it, but he at least has some marbles left to not get himself skewered by his Lord Commander on the spot. So she goes for the kill herself, managing to wound Rhaenyra instead, and apparently earning her dad's admiration, too. Otto Hightower looks WAY too pleased with this development, in my personal opinion.
But Rhaenyra now knows where she stands, and tells Daemon she needs him: by her side and fighting for her cause. So they stage Laenor's death and send him off with his lover while they marry in secret on Dragonstone to perpetuate that tried and true, pure Targaryen bloodline.
This will help on many counts, most importantly the one in which Rhaenyra now has a husband who will actively stand behind her in case anyone's dumb enough to ignore Viserys' verdict about the whole bastardy issue: Daemon will make sure no one mistakes him for the kind of passive figure Laenor was while married to Rhaenyra.
A good thing, too, because as more time passes, and Viserys grows weaker (and more mummified by the minute), Corlys manages to get himself almost killed at the Stepstones. Yes, AGAIN with the Stepstones. I know. It's getting old.
But with his brother on what he assumes to be his deathbed, Vaemond is making his own move for Driftmark; Baela, ward with Rhaenys, sends a quick raven to her dad Daemon about this development, so he and Rhaenyra return to King's Landing to defend her son's claim to the driftwood throne. They find, however, that Viserys won't really be able to help them much since he's constantly drugged, and the Hightowers have turned the Red Keep into some sort of religious house.
There's no love lost between these players either, so Rhaenyra goes to her father in the night, alone, begging him to support her because she can't do it otherwise. She's trying everything, offering marriages to Rhaenys' granddaughters for the Velaryon support, fighting tooth and nail, to seemingly no real result until the next day, when Viserys drags himself to the throne to figure out what the hell his family is up to now.
The answer: more chaos.
But if we circle back to the comment I made about Daemon earlier ... welp, Vaemond literally fucks around and finds out, when he loses his head after accusations of bastardy, courtesy of Daemon, mind. No one's sad to see him go.
Viserys tries one last time to get the two sides to reconcile and it MIGHT have worked, because Rhaenyra and Alicent both (apparently) want to avoid any more bloodshed, but their kids didn't get the memo for when Aemond starts a fight. He isn't brave enough to go up against his uncle, though, especially not after seeing that Daemon delivers on his promises, no matter how insane or threatening they may be.
And with that done, we say goodbye to Viserys the Peaceful ... who finally joins his beloved Aemma, though not before mumbling about Aegon's dream to Alicent, thinking she's Rhaenyra. If you're wondering what that's about, in short: Aegon the Conqueror had a dream about the Night King coming after all of them, so every Targaryen king passed this threat down to his heir, which Viserys also did with Rhaenyra.
But Alicent takes it and runs with it, making it about HER SON Aegon (honestly though, we all know it's just an excuse, given Rhaenyra has an Aegon too by this point). And then the Greens basically kill anyone on the council who opposes them, lock up everyone who knows Viserys is dead, and get a hasty coronation for Aegon going so they can get it done before word reaches Dragonstone, where Rhaenyra and Daemon returned to.
Of course Aegon doesn't really WANT to be king, but that's beside the point, and they find him and drag him out to be crowned, though not before his mother and grandfather disagree about how to handle Rhaenyra: Otto sues for death. Alicent, apparently in shock the council has been plotting this all along, is very vocal AGAINST that, and given she gets to her son first, she'll be the one calling the shots now.
She even tries pleading with Rhaenys, whom they're keeping prisoner in the Red Keep, but the old bird says no, thank you, and is freed by Ser Erryk, who's had enough of Aegon and his ... erm. Well, raping girls and watching kids fight to the death, for one. So Rhaenys decides to do her own version of a hail Mary and busts out from underneath the Dragonpit during the coronation with Meleys, who gives all the Greens the 'I could BBQ you but I got better things to do' shriek, and then the two fly outta there.
They're the ones who bring news of the usurpation to Rhaenyra, which, combined with the fact her father's dead, sends her into early labor and she unfortunately stillbirths her and Daemon's third child. While she's fighting on her own battlefield, Daemon's outside preparing Dragonstone for war which he knows is inevitable, even though he comes across as bloodthirsty. He and Rhaenyra get into it about this whole thing later, almost getting physical, but she's trying to honour her father's wishes and Aegon's dream, so, no war for her just yet.
She is, however, crowned with her father's crown that Ser Erryk brings (along with his allegiance), which she wears when Otto arrives to parlay with her. Honestly, as much as Otto hates Daemon, he should be so lucky he isn't treating solely with him, because Daemon would have fed him to the sheep in the Vale YEARS ago. Still, at this point war is still all up in the air, something even Rhaenys acknowledges.
See, she's the only one who hasn't actually pledged to Rhaenyra yet - but when she and her recovering husband finally have a little heart-to-heart, it's clear she's now squarely on Team Black, and urges Corlys to declare for Rhaenyra, even though the man wants to just stay neutral. So he clops out there with his walking stick and starts walloping everybody around the Conqueror's table ... ahem, sorry, got carried away there.
He DOES go out there to swear allegiance and say they'll blockade the shipping lanes, because he now holds the Stepstones. Daemon, for his part, is discovering his singing voice as he serenades the dragon Vermithor from sleep, so it's all gearing up, and all they need now are allies: at the urging of her own sons, Rhaenyra sends Jacaerys to treat with the Eyrie and Winterfell, while Lucerys is sent to Storm's End, in potentially the most catastrophic decision ever.
He gets there alright, but Vhagar and Aemond beat him to it, and Aemond wants Lucerys' eye as payment for his own that was lost years ago. It's debatable whether Lucerys cutting one out would have actually appeased the little power-hungry psycho, however, so the situation spirals into the two dragon-riders chasing one another through a storm. Arrax, cornered and afraid, disobeys his rider and hisses a baby fireball at Vhagar. Vhagar, being bigger and the only dragon to have seen war, retaliates, ignoring Aemond's orders, and finishes the deal in one single chomp.
Which is where the season ends: Aemond looking horrified by the realization that the Greens have now landed the first blow, and Daemon bringing the news of her son's death to Rhaenyra.
And in a sweeping change of music from whimsically saddened to powerfully hardened, the Queen stands tall and her eyes promise retribution.
DUN DUN DUN!
Majestic, epically proportioned and brilliantly cast, House of the Dragon brings us all the magic we experienced back in the first seasons of Game of Thrones. Bonus points include the fact that Martin is much more heavily involved in this production, and that the entire story of the Dance of the Dragons has already been written and penned down. There's no waiting, we all know how it ends.
But even with the changes from book to script the show manages to deliver and keep its audience entertained with well-crafted characters who often make questionable decisions, followed by character growth (or decline) and some sort of development that plunges the realm further and further into anarchy and chaos.
I really love the dragons, especially. Each one we've seen so far has its own distinct look and characteristics, from little baby Arrax barely big enough to seat a rider, to old and decrepit Vhagar who's basically a grandma at this point and just wants to sleep.
There's little nuances that keep the season going, like Daemon's high-level chaos and Alicent's self-immolation because of her anxieties, to Larys' foot fetish (MY EYES STILL NEED BLEACH). Even so though, there are things that don't really make sense and have slightly questionable results.
The smallest quibble of mine is the main theme song, because I was expecting the show to have something new, not the old tried-and-true out of Game of Thrones. This is ABOUT THE DRAGONS, Y'ALL. Couldn't we have gotten a theme just for them???
But I digress. One thing that seems to be prevalent is how the showrunners are making almost every decision that seems relatively straight-forward in the books look grey and like the characters are mostly doing it by mistake. For example: Aemond killing Lucerys in the books is relatively direct, but here is devolved to one dragon just getting annoyed by another. Alicent's much more involved and a power-player in the book, but is here relegated to being a girl constantly pushed around by the men surrounding her. Rhaenyra, too, feels bogged down by this prophecy, so much so that she's upholding it rather than looking at her more immediate problems.
Girl, if Winterfell falls, you'll probably hear about it from someone, so you can worry about the Song of Ice and Fire tomorrow. You gotta worry about the Iron Throne today, first.
And of course, Crispin Cole. Ah, Crispy. The wildest deviation from the books in that his actions make no sense, not to mention that he should have been dead about five times over because of these actions, he's somehow still around and still annoying. Fabien Frankel plays him to perfection, I have absolutely zero arguments there, but the writing for this character is possibly the most wildly all over the place and illogical.
Still, I suppose this IS only the first season. The second one is usually always stronger, learning from its predecessor's mistakes.
So hold on to your butts and your wigs, everybody. Playtime and negotiations are over. Because, in the words of Martin himself: then the storm broke, and the dragons danced.
xx
*images and video not mine
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