bastards – Simon’s Incoherent Blog

House of the Dragon: Season 2, Episode 7 – The Red Sowing

“Well then – let us raise an army of bastards.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Now that’s more like it. This wasn’t a barnstorming, action-packed episode of House of the Dragon; but it didn’t need to be. It’s a penultimate episode, and what it needed was to set things up for the finale while providing a building sense of pace in the narrative. After last week’s ponderous instalment, I’d been uncertain it could do that, but it succeeded admirably.

House of the Dragon: Season 2, Episode 5 – Regent

“Do not underestimate your subjects. They are a thousand thousand living in the shadow of the Red Keep, and forgotten for too long.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After last week’s Bloody Big Battle, it was back to House of the Dragon’s trademark political scheming this week – but with some justification. The fallout from the Battle of Rook’s Rest is seismic, and even if you find the show’s predilection for men with beards arguing in dark rooms tiresome, given last week’s events it was entirely necessary dramatically.