“We will all become beasts before our end.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
It’s been early two years since last we caught up with the ever-quarrelling Targaryen factions of House of the Dragon; and in the interim, its attempt to recreate the vibe of the original Game of Thrones has been challenged by the less complex (and more fun) Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Can the more dour original spinoff still compete?
Well, if it’s bloody great battles that decide the fate of kingdoms that you’re looking for, Ko7K doesn’t deal with anything on that scale. The trouble is that, with the notable exception of last season’s fourth episode, neither does House of the Dragon, preferring to go all in for the political skulduggery that was only one aspect of the original Game of Thrones. Its narrative pace has, as a result, often been frustratingly glacial, notably leaving its previous season on a cliffhanger just before the carnage of the civil war was about to begin.
The good news is that, after two years of waiting, this season opener starts with the war in full swing. And if it’s a battle you’re after, this ep delivers in spades. Finally.
Of course, this being House of the Dragon, the ep can’t go straight there. There has to be some political wrangling first. But given the stakes here, even that is far more charged than in the previous two seasons. If you recall (and it’s understandable if you don’t given the two year wait), last season ended with the repentant Alicent making a clandestine visit to childhood friend turned bitter rival Rhaenyra on Dragonstone, offering a plan to end the war before it began, thus avoiding the inevitable carnage that would ensue.
She would arrange for Aemond to take his dragon off to ostensibly help take Harrenhal (where Daemon no longer is), leaving King’s Landing undefended for the Blacks to sweep in and take the capital unopposed. So desperate was she to avoid full scale war, she was even prepared to sacrifice her eldest son, the now-crippled King Aegon, in the process. Got all that?
Trouble is, the plan was out of date even when it was proposed. Aegon had already fled the capital as part of the ongoing machinations of the wily Ser Larys Strong; while Aemond, spurred on by the “abdication” of his older brother, has already proclaimed himself King, and is resolutely not leaving King’s Landing. What’s more, he’s arranged for a 15,000 strong Hightower army to come and defend the city.
All this Alicent discovers to her horror on her return to the city, spending much of the episode on damage control in a frantic attempt to preserve the original plan. Thus, a fake message is sent to the Hightower forces, commanded by newcomer James Norton as Ser Ormund, ordering them to remain in place, while she desperately tries to persuade Aemond that he really needs to leave the city with his dragon, like, right now.
This may all be leading up to a Big Battle (finally!), but the show isn’t neglecting its richly developed characters, so there’s a deal of contemplative scenes in the first half. Rhaenyra’s newly minted commoner dragonriders, Ulf, Hugh and Addam have been despatched to a remote fastness to await and ambush Aemond and his dragon, who it turns out aren’t coming. So they have a lengthy series of scenes where they sit around comedically discussing the situation like a three-handed version of Waiting for Godot. Still, it’s good to see some of the original show’s humour being injected into this otherwise dour spinoff.
Daemon puts in a brief appearance in the aftermath of a Big Battle we don’t even see in the Riverlands, just to remind us he’s there; after last season’s utterly redundant subplot of him moping gloomily at Harrenhal, I hope the show finds more than this to do with Matt Smith’s magnificent, scenery-chewing performance this year. And Rhys Ifans, as master manipulator Ser Otto Hightower, is nowhere to be seen. Presumably Ifans had a lot on his schedule what with also taking on a starring role as Sergei Korolev in Apple’s excellent Star City.
The internet has been somewhat abuzz, though, with the first apparent sighting of the sometimes-mentioned-but-usually-forgotten Daeron Targaryen, Alicent’s younger son who apparently bucks the Targaryen trend by being quite nice. That’s him next to Ser Ormund, and fans are outraged by the fact that he has red hair. Perhaps the costume department is all out of Ridiculous Targaryen Wigs.
The fact that we cut straight to the aftermath of the Riverlands Battle made me worry rather that the war would be depicted in a series of such aftermaths; the show’s got form on this in previous seasons. But I needn’t have worried. Pretty much the whole second half of the ep is taken up with the biggest battle the show has yet presented. And in a first for the franchise, it’s a full scale naval battle. With, of course, dragons.
All this follows on from the scenes last season with the hapless Tyland Lannister trying to recruit the naval assistance of the Triarchy, in the boisterous personage of Admiral Sharako Lohar, to break the blockade of King’s Landing by ‘Sea Snake’ Lord Corlys Velaryon. It’s great to see Abigail Thorn back as the madly piratical Lohar, easily the most colourful character the show has yet offered. It’s just a shame she doesn’t make it to the end of the battle. Seems rather a waste of a great character.
And she’s far from the only one. As if restating the franchise’s intent that no major character is safe, this ep has a high body count of them. This starts early, with the (very convincing) severed head of Jason Lannister being presented to the very pleased Prince Daemon, and doesn’t let up. In the course of the battle, both Jason’s twin brother Tyland and Corlys Velaryon himself are washed overboard from a sinking ship (to be fair, they might not be dead, though Tyland will have a hard job swimming to the surface in that heavy armour, as Lohar portentously notes early on).
But the most striking death is undoubtedly valiant-but-naïve Prince Jaecarys. Having locked up his own mother to ensure her safety, his dragon is twice struck by weighted crossbows designed to drag it down into the water (shades of the barrels in Jaws, designed to do the opposite). He’s rescued the first time by Baela’s dragon Moondancer snapping the tether, but doom strikes when Rhaena’s newly tamed dragon Sheepstealer turns out not to tell the difference between ally and enemy. Even as his dragon sinks, drowning, you still think Jace might be OK. Until he’s repeatedly struck by Triarchy arrows from one of the non-incinerated ships.
Gotta admit, even for this show that was a shocker, as it was surely intended. Having read the source material, I knew Jace’s death was coming, but I hadn’t expected it in the very first episode of the season, what with actor Harry Collett still very prominently mentioned in the opening credits. It seems like a determined indicator that the gloves are off now, and we can expect many more such major characters’ deaths in the coming seasons.
Of which we now know that there will be only one after this, so presumably the action will continue to ramp up. It’s been a long time coming, to the frustration of Game of Thrones fans, who could expect a massive, game-changing battle at least once a season. I haven’t minded so much the show’s focus on political machinations, but even I had started to feel there should be some actual action to liven them up.
This is a good (though not great) season opener that feels like it’s recovering the franchise’s mojo. But I’ve said that before, only to be met with more endless scenes of serious looking men spewing exposition in dimly lit council rooms. So, I’ll reserve judgement for now; but if the rest of the season can at least sometimes return to this level of action, then it will be a huge improvement.
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