“The boys who clung to me, who hid their little faces in my skirts – dead, so that I might sit on a throne of swords.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
It’s been a busy week, so I’m just now getting on to catching up with House of the Dragon – the very day the next episode goes out!
Continuing straight on from last week’s epic battle, this ep opens with a striking shot of its conclusion from below the waves; dragonfire flying everywhere, debris and bodies floating in the sea. But the battle’s nearly over – who has survived, and who has been horribly killed?
Of course last week ended with the shock death of a major character, something this show has been noticeably lacking in its slow grind towards the Targaryen civil war. But Harry Collett’s naïve Jace, his body reverently recovered and taken to his stricken mother, was just the first in a series of Major Character Deaths that make the show feel rather more like its predecessor.
I wrote last time that it was a surprise (albeit an effective one) for an opening episode to dispose of one of its main cast so early in the season. The trend continues this week, with the almost peremptory appearance and dispatch of two more of the series’ mainstays – Simon Russell Beale’s Ser Simon Strong, and Rhys Ifans’ Lord Otto Hightower.
This makes more sense with the knowledge that these two eps were originally intended as the conclusion of the previous season, before difficulties like the 2023 Writer’s Strike meant that they had to be shifted to the beginning of this one. That would have made the previous season more like one of the original Game of Thrones – episode 9 with a major battle, and episode 10 showing the characters licking their wounds before ending on a major cliffhanger. It explains why the end of the second season was, for many, so anticlimactic.
With this season also allotted eight episodes, if two of them were originally from the previous season, that suggests rather more compression of the original story than the show has done so far. I think that’s a good thing – Martin’s tales of the Dance of Dragons are a pretty slim volume, and their expansion is likely the reason for the TV version’s often glacial pace. Hopefully things will move more quickly now.
This is another ep of two halves. With Alicent’s plan to help Rhaneyra take King’s Landing still on, the first half mostly shows Alicent running around the Red Keep trying to convince her suspicious lords and military to stand down the defence of the city. In this she’s aided by the seldom-seen Helaena, who, with Aegon MIA and Aemond off conquering Harrenhal, is basically the highest-ranking royal left in the city. It’s good to see the underused Phia Saban again as Helaena, who hasn’t had much to do since the agonising decision over which of her children should die in the previous season opener. This, however, doesn’t expand on her character much.
At least we get to see a bit more of Daemon this week, and Matt Smith as ever is the standout of the show. Brought back to snap Rhaenyra out of her understandable grief, he’s missing none of his usual swagger as he helps her finally take King’s Landin while Alicent flees. It’s a nice touch that the City Watch still revere him as their former commander, which is pretty damn useful when you’re trying to conquer the city.
The scenes of the virtually unopposed conquest of King’s Landing nicely encapsulate the confusion and uncertainty of the regular military in a civil war. Unsure where their loyalties lie, some of the Kingsguard stand up to the invading Blacks, leading to a cool scene with Rhaenyra and Daemon, swords in hand, standing alone and ready against them.
But with the City Watch onside, it’s a done deal, and Daemon discovers a little present left for him by the wily, departed Larys – Otto Hightower, imprisoned in the dungeon of the Red Keep. So that’s where he’d got to. Rhys Ifans’ appearance is all too brief, but as ever, he invests the shrewd schemer with a measure of dignity and defiance even in defeat. Rhaenyra can’t keep him alive, he knows that. And as Daemon insists, she should kill him herself if she wants to cement her power.
It’s an electric scene, as the assembled soldiers and dignitaries wait with bated breath; Otto knows Rhaenyra isn’t too practiced at beheading, and will likely make a mess of it. And so she does, finally succeeding after three goes of some very painful looking hacking. Nonetheless, the Blacks have definitely won this one. And another of the show’s very realistic severed heads makes its appearance. I wonder if the actors get to keep them?
So it’s goodbye to Rhys Ifans, who can presumably now dedicate his time to his new role as a harried Soviet scientist in Apple’s Star City. Also bowing out is the excellent Simon Russell Beale as the ever-flexible Ser Simon Strong. Confronted by the dragon riding Aemond hacking his way through Harrenhal, Ser Simon tries his usual technique of switching sides, but the paranoid Aemond’s having none of it.
A few quick sword thrusts, and it’s goodbye to him and both his sons, though not without Aemond receiving a nasty knife wound in the process. Looks like he’ll be ok though, as fair weather Scottish witch Alys is mysteriously on hand again, having moved on from supporting the Blacks when Daemon refused to give her the castle. She’s an interesting one, and not a character I recall from the books; very reminiscent of Melisandre, the Red Woman, from the original GoT.
Still alive, though, to nobody’s particular surprise, is Lord Corlys Velaryon, last seen falling off a ship. I mean let’s face it, Corlys has form – this must be at least the third time he’s been missing presumed dead, only to turn up looking waterlogged. Looking at the ruin of his castle, he channels his inner Pyrrhus – “one more such victory, and I am ruined!” Still, he finally decides to acknowledge his bastard sons Alyn and Addam – all it took was saving him from death on multiple occasions. You’ve got to take your happy endings where you can get them on this show.
It all ends as it was always going to – with Rhaenyra finally taking her place on the Iron Throne, as her father always intended, leaving bloodstained footprints behind her. But it’s a hollow victory for her, with her sons and heirs both dead, and Aemond still out there with the most powerful dragon of all. The war is far from over, and the question now is, how long can she stay sitting on the world’s most uncomfortable chair?
This would have made for a fine season finale last year, more crowd pleasing than the low key one we actually got. It has action, betrayal, and plenty of Major Character Deaths. The rearrangement of episodes does suggest that next the next one would have been the original season 3 opener; it’ll be intriguing to see if it comes off like one.
Simon’s Incoherent Blog 