"There is no war so hateful to the gods as a war between kin;
and no war so bloody as a war between dragons."
Hello everyone!
I know this one took me forever. I know. I was a little bit shell-shocked after the season finale this past week and needed a little bit of time to gather my thoughts, because this season was a lot of ups and downs.
Mainly ups, but definitely some of downs, and nope we're not in Nottingham!
We're in Westeros. A long time before Game of Thrones, although it's all the same in this Song of Ice and Fire saga which HBO is intent on building, considering we're getting A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms too now.
It's a bit like something that the Hobbits realize in The Lord of the Rings: they're part of a bigger story, and after they're gone, others will continue it, just as others started it before them
But enough with me maudlin. It's time to get serious, because the storm's broken in House of the Dragon.
If you remember, we ended the first season of the show with Aemond killing Lucerys, which of course is considered as one of the major turning points in this ongoing conflict between the Blacks and the Greens; Rhaenyra is beside herself, searching for proof, and heartbroken once she actually finds it, after which she demands Aemond himself in retribution for her son's death.
Elsewhere, Daemon insists on trying to get Rhaenys to attack King's Landing with him to avenge the death, knowing full well that he can't go against Vhagar alone, but Rhaenys is cool as a cucumber and tells him he's not the king, so, his orders mean jack-all.
As he then lands Mysaria, his former lover, he sticks her in a jail cell and tells her the price of freedom is information that eventually leads him to hiring two would-be assassins to take Aemond out. Because he only has enough coin - or smarts - for Dumb and Dumber though, they don't actually kill Aemond, but rather sneak into Helaena's chambers, where they force her to show them Aegon's son and heir, who ends up dead instead.
You know, because that makes a ton of sense, and will of course not enrage Aegon against the smallfolk when he's already trying so hard to please them (much to the dismay of his grandpa Otto, who I swear lives with the perpetual look of 'my family are all idiots' on his face).
But hey, at least Jace secured the North for his mom in the war, and we know Alicent and Crispin Cole (yes, I still refuse to call him by his correct name) are banging.
This will come to bite her in the ass later, but for now we get to witness a raging Aegon hang all the ratcatchers in the city, which literally erases any kind of popularity that Otto's move of a public funeral for the baby prince raised (I swear I thought that creepy doll's head was going to roll right off somewhere during the process. I SWEAR).
Rhaenyra's not on board with child murder either, and she and Daemon get into an argument about it later, in the middle of which he stomps off when she tells him she's never trusted him, not really, and flies off to conquer Harrenhal, the most strategic move of all anyone's been making thus far: Harrenhal is the only place big enough to house a land army, and the Riverlands are central to any conflict that has ever happened in Westeros.
Also, Simon Strong, the current castellan, is so happy someone else gets to deal with the crumbling ruin around him, he hands it over to Daemon immediately and doesn't even bother with any resistance at all.
While this is confusing for Daemon, I imagine he'd be even more confounded when seeing his wife freeing Mysaria from her cell, which then prompts the woman to come serve the rightful queen as she notices one of the twins on the Kingsguard who shouldn't be where she sees him. See, one of them is serving Rhaenyra, and one Aegon, and right now, the one serving Aegon's been ordered by Ser Crisp to assassinate Rhaenyra.
Anything and everything Crisp does revolves around Rhaenyra, and the fact she turned him down because she didn't want to go live in a smelly small house to sell oranges with him. I swear, dude is unhinged, and this kind of decision should have immediately gotten him at least fired, if not outright killed, but of course Plot Armor is strong, so he lives to see another day.
Unlike the twins, sadly, who both end up dead, and he even gets promoted to Hand when Otto discovers his grandson is an even bigger idiot than he thought.
Of course, we've all know the Greens have been tripping for a while now, but that's nothing compared to the trip Daemon's about to take at Harrenhal, where a weird woman, Alys, foretells his death and every shadow seems to be telling him a story. Because Matt Smith is possibly the highest billed actor on the call sheet, they had to fill his storyline somehow to excuse his constant screen presence, and let me tell you, it's bad for a couple of episodes while he's high on weird paste and having time lapses and asinine decisions (not the least of them being the debacle between Blackwoods and Brackens, but we'll get to that later.
With Mysaria now Rhaenyra's advisor, she's probably the only one listening to the queen's fears while the rest of her council urge for open war, something she's desperate to avoid. So is Rhaenys, who counsels there may be a better way, if she can speak to Alicent somehow.
Alicent, who's got no handle on any of her children and seeks solace at the Sept of Baelor, gets the shock of her life when she meets with Rhaenyra, who's snuck into the city disguises as a Septa to try and negotiate, but instead she realizes that Alicent is an even bigger dumb-dumb than she originally thought she was.
Everyone and their grandmother knows Viserys wasn't talking about his son Aegon when Alicent heard him mutter, but about the Conqueror, and Rhaenyra explains that to her during this meet-up, not that it helps. It does, however, release the Black leader from any bonds she might have still had holding her back, and as her firstborn scowls at her about where she's been, she declares that if it's war they want, it's war they'll get.
Considering Crisp's marching and burning and beheading people loyal to houses sworn to her, it's probably about time, even if things are going to get ugly. Tempers are at an all-time high, for one because Aegon badly humiliated and mocked his brother Aemond at a brothel, and Aemond's burning for a chance of revenge. For another, since Alicent sucks as a mom and literally tells Aegon he's useless, he flies off to join Crispy in making war, even though she tells him to stay put.
This means that, when Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys come to burn Crisp to a, well, crisp, they first toss Aegon aside like a rag doll, and he gets the additional bonus of being Dracarys-ed by his own brother, who'd been hiding with his massive bitchy grandma Vhagar; he then defeats Rhaenys and kills both her and her dragon, and might have actually finished the deed of killing his brother if Crisp didn't wake up to stop him in time.
Not that it would have made things worse, considering dragonfire melted parts of Aegon's armour to fuse it to his body, so he's brought back to King's Landing in secret, while Meleys' head is paraded through the streets ... and Crisp has no clue why nobody's cheering for him.
My guy. You just defeated the symbol of Targaryen godhood. You're not really THAT dense, are you?
I suppose he is, but also his honeymoon period with Alicent is definitely over since he's so not telling her what actually happens, but she knows. Don't tell me she doesn't know, not when her bid for regent in Aegon's absence is rejected, and Aemond gets elected instead. He immediately starts doling out orders in a calm, cool, collected manner, but also just a little crazy, which we'll see as the season tips towards the end.
While the Blacks mourn Rhaenys, Jace at least ends up proactive and secures the crossing of the Twins, a strategic point and much needed, too: he managed to get the Starks, if you remember, and they'll need passage South, which only the Freys can provide. Seeing as he's smart, he also says they can totally have Harrenhal after this is all over, since nobody in their right mind wants that piece of real estate, which is more trouble than it's worth (considering Daemon's over there trippin', and the Riverlords denounce him and his atrocities with the whole, Blackwood vs Bracken debacle, you get what I'm saying).
What's definitely causing more trouble is the fact Vermithor and Silverwing, the only two other dragons who can face Vhagar, have no riders. Rhaenyra has no clue how to solve this puzzle, but Jace (who learned how to unlock fast travel from Gendry, but then again he DOES have his dragon, so ...) suggests looking at other noble houses for drops of Targaryen blood.
It's that blood that binds a dragon, after all. Not all Valyrians were dragonlords, but ALL dragonlords were Valyrian, and the blood of that old empire runs deep.
So that's what Rhaenyra attempts next with Seasmoke, you know, the dragon Laenor abandoned when they faked his death and he ran off. The attempt is unsuccessful but extra crispy, and Seasmoke decides he knows a guy who could fit the bill, so he goes and corners Addam of Hull, one of two brothers on Driftmark ... who just so happen to be Corlys' bastard sons. Just for funsies.
Things might be looking up in the world of dragons, but on the human side of things, Alicent is losing all control she ever dreamed she had when Aemond kicks her off the Small Council, and he's making further reaches, sending Tyland Lannister to negotiate with the Triarchy so they can end the Velaryon blockade of the Gullet.
This blockade means people are slowly starving, and with the regent having closed the city off to prevent anyone from leaving, the situation is dire enough that Mysaria can quietly stoke the flames by sending out whispers how the royals feast, and also boats with food from Rhaenyra, to shore up more support for the queen from the smallfolk.
As this is a move only someone very cunning could make, we're in desperate need of Otto returning to court, so Aemond has Larys send for him, which Larys does - but he also warns Aegon that he's in danger as long as he's alive.
Oh and we get a name-drop of Daeron, Alicent's third son! The guy who was almost written out of the show but fan outrage forced his inclusion, since everyone wants to see Tessarion. Apparently, he's kind, which is a glowing recommendation in this show where brothers will burn brothers and backstabbing is the name of the game.
Alicent feels this keenly and takes off into the woods with just her Kingsguard, because we're really going for Ophelia from Hamlet with her, and she swims and sleeps and thinks and basically does nothing really exciting, so we'll leave her be.
Someone in an equally uneventful plotline is Rhaena, who's been sent to the Vale with Rhaenyra's younger kids and some dragon eggs (which Dany will hatch later, by the way!), only to be continuously belittled by Jeyne Arryn and eventually running off to find the wild dragon that's been barbecuing sheep all around. Nobody notices, everybody apparently boards the ship to Pentos without her, and no search party's launched.
Don't you just love being that important to be missed so easily?!
Ahem. With Larys urging for Aegon to push himself so he can recover faster, things are escalating for the Greens, and are about to get even worse because a dragon flies over King's Landing, one that's not Vhagar, or Sunfyre (where are you, Sunfyre?!?), or even Dreamfyre or Tessarion, any of the Green dragons actually.
It's Silverwing.
See, Mysaria suggests to Rhaenyra that dragonseeds might be the answer to her prayers, so they invite a bunch of commoners who claim to have Targaryen blood from the royals whoring all over King's Landing, and set them in front of Vermithor to either be killed or claim. Most of them die - listen, if I were Vermithor, I'd toast them, too - but Hugh the Hammer, a blacksmith who Aegon double-crossed, manages to have something in him that the old dragon likes.
And as for Silverwing, she looks at Ulf, another bastard, supposedly Viserys and Daemon's half-brother, and either thinks he hatched out of one of her eggs, or just figures she might as well pick him if she has to pick someone.
Either way, while Jace is spitting mad because the illegitimate people claiming dragons puts his own claim in jeopardy (seeing as he, too, is actually illegitimate), Aemond is trying to figure out where he parked Vhagar to go after this big ass dragon that just flew over HIS city.
He gets a come-to-the-Seven moment though, when he nears Dragonstone and sees not just Silverwing, but Vermithor and Syrax there as part of the welcome wagon.
Vhagar wants to go get 'em. She's mad her rider woke her up, AGAIN. But Aemond has at least as much sense left as there is in one eye, and he forces her around so he doesn't bite it, feeling actually pretty afraid for the first time in his life since claiming the biggest dragon on the continent.
He now has actual opponents. And that frightens him so much he wants to force Helaena to mount Dreamfyre and help him fight, but seeing as Helaena would rather die than burn anyone - and tells him she's seen he burned Aegon, and he'll die before the war ends, so anyway, would it really matter? - that's moot point.
Not that Alicent would ever stand for it, either. With her brother Gwayne serving Ser Crisp the best comebacks and then mournfully sitting there wondering why neither one of them had 'total annihilation via dragons' on their bingo cards (which, let's be real, what did y'alls REALLY think would happen once Vhagar got involved? She'd crochet doilies with Meleys and Syrax?!?).
With Aemond burning recklessly, Rhaenyra finally declares war, after hoping that she could avoid it having more riders (girl, we could have told you this a long time ago and saved you lots of pain and heartache, but it is what it is). She also gets woken up in the middle of the night when Alicent sneaks out to Dragonstone to surrender King's Landing, if she and her family can be spared.
This is cute and all, but Rhaenyra turns cruel for a second (and part realistic), demanding Aegon's head before this can happen, to which Alicent - surprisingly! - agrees.
And considering she now has a land army, because Daemon did in fact manage to get the Riverlands, after some masterful manipulation by tiny lil' Oscar Tully, and a vision from the Weirwood tree about his death, the White Walkers, and Daenerys, which helped him see he's just part of a bigger picture and swear fealty to Rhaenyra, FINALLY returning to the Daemon we know and love, our Black Queen stands burdened by history as Westeros prepares for war.
Alicent may be plotting to run off, but Aegon's actually done it with Larys, and Otto Hightower is in a cage somewhere, which is even more baffling than anything else; but his family's army is marching, Tessarion is flying, Tyland is sailing with the Triarchy armada, Corlys is back on his ship, The Queen Who Never Was with Alyn, his other bastard (who wants nothing to do with him, natch), and the Winter Wolves have crossed the Twins even as the Lannisters approach the Riverlands.
Everybody is positioning for the upcoming conflict, that's about to destroy a noble house and rip the world they know apart; all for a butt-holder made of swords that's not even really comfortable, but there's worse ways to go, I suppose.
This season was filled with the little things, details you needed to pay careful attention to or you'd miss entirely, and unfortunately the American Horror Story: Harrenhal chapter, because I swear if we had ONE MORE EPISODE with Daemon running around unhinged, I'd have screamed. He's used to everything by the point one of Rhaenyra's councilors pops up though, and just looks around going 'eh, this place'll make you bark at the moon, don't worry'.
There are definitely weak spots, like Daemon's arc and Rhaena's merging with the story of Nettles from the book, but the dragons are ON POINT. If only they didn't have to get so ugly as they age! Why do Vhagar and Vermithor have to have those pouches under their throats?!? Seriously now.
Overall, I really enjoyed this, and can't wait for the bloodbath that everyone's been itching for and apparently critiques this season over.
Plenty of blood will be spilled, don't you worry. And we hopefully get to figure out where Otto is, as well as see Rhaenyra slowly turn more and more paranoid as time wears on.
But it was a good season, with plenty of stunning visuals, rather cunning positioning, and groundwork laid down for what's to come. Pay attention and remember the details, folks: that's what's going to help you connect all the dots later when shit hits the fan.
If you thought this was a dance when Vhagar and Meleys clashed, just wait: we're about to start a full-on ball, with plenty of dragons and to spare.
Come back for season three once it airs!
xx
*images and video not mine
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