Daemon – Simon’s Incoherent Blog

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.

House of the Dragon: Season 2, Episode 4 – The Red Dragon and the Gold

“Rhaenyra’s supporters will believe what they wish. And so will Aegon’s. The war will be fought, many will die, and the victor will eventually ascend the throne.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

If it was a Bloody Big Battle you were waiting for, this week’s episode of House of the Dragon delivered in spades. For many people (though not me), the show’s deliberate, sometimes slow pace has been its weakness. For myself, I’ve enjoyed all the political skulduggery that’s characterised this more thoughtful prequel to Game of Thrones thus far. But even I enjoy some carnage-based medieval spectacle now and again. Especially if it involves dragons.

House of the Dragon: Season 2, Episode 3 – The Burning Mill

“There is no war so hateful to the gods as a war between kin. And no war so bloody as a war between dragons.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

This week’s ep of House of the Dragon ramped up the show’s ever-present sense of impending doom to maximum as everyone ruminated on the causes and reasons for a war that now seems not only inevitable, but imminent. From the outset, we were shown how such wars often have roots in much older grudges, as what appeared to be a trivial argument between two groups of spotty teenagers with swords quickly escalated to become the bloody battle that gave the ep its title.

House of the Dragon: season 1, episode 10 – The Black Queen

“We do not choose our destiny… it chooses us.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

And so, House of the Dragon ends its first season much as it began – with multiple scenes of nobles gathered in dark rooms discussing strategy, punctuated by a graphic, horrific birth scene and the occasional bit of jaw dropping violence.

House of the Dragon: season 1, episode 7 – Driftmark

“Exhausting, wasn’t it, hiding behind the cloak of your own righteousness? But now they see you as you are!”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

It seems weddings aren’t the only royal occasions prone to disruption and drama in Westeros. As we see in this ep, funerals can be equally as difficult, as Lady Laena’s memorial on the Velaryon stronghold of Driftmark further draws the lines of alliances between factions that will (presumably) soon be openly at war.

House of the Dragon: season 1, episode 5 – We Light the Way

“Is it not better to have lived in peace than to have songs sung about you after you are dead?”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Oh dear. There’s going to be a wedding. Keen observers of previous (well, actually, future) Westerosi royal weddings will be well aware that such things tend not to go well. This one, however, sets a new precedent – it all goes pear-shaped before we even get to the actual ceremony, with a pre-wedding feast that goes from awkward, to supremely awkward, to horrifically violent, in one of the most bloodthirsty dances in the Seven Kingdoms. “I’m not much of a dancer,” confides Princess Rhaenyra to her intended, Ser Laenor Velaryon. “It’s just like combat,” he replies. He’s not wrong.

House of the Dragon: season 1, episode 4 – King of the Narrow Sea

“You are wearing a crown. Do you also call yourself King?”

(SPOILER WARNING – ALSO POSSIBLY NSFW!)

Right, well it looks as though I was wrong in my earlier assumption that House of the Dragon would be playing down the massive amounts of sex so beloved of parent show Game of Thrones. Very, very wrong. Because this episode lets it all hang out, with copious amounts of sex and discussion of sex – along with (natch) how it affects that all-important Royal Duty.

House of the Dragon: season 1, episode 3 – Second of His Name

“You’re not only Rhaenyra’s father, you’re the King. She’ll do as you command.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After the relatively talky first two episodes, this time House of the Dragon delivers on the action, with several storming battle scenes as the war with the piratical, mysterious Crabfeeder continues. Dragonfire rains down on his beleaguered forces, driving them to scurry, Bin Laden-like, into the cover of some handy caves. Director Greg Yaitanes continues a tradition established in Game of Thrones by directors like Neil Marshall, directing the action with a sure hand that provides compelling vistas, while also plunging the viewer nearly first hand into the action.

House of the Dragon: season 1, episode 2 – The Rogue Prince

“We are the realm’s second sons, Daemon. Our worth is not given. It must be made.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After the season opener’s rather lengthy scene-setting and exposition, the showrunners of House of the Dragon hit the ground running in the second ep with the beginning of an actual plot. So keen are they to get the plot up and running that we get plunged into it without any explanation, as the opening scene pans across a beach full of carnage, with voracious crabs feasting on the bodies of the dead (and the not-so-dead).

House of the Dragon: season 1, episode 1 – The Heirs of the Dragon

“The only thing that could tear down the House of the Dragon was itself.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Roll up, roll up, for the Big Autumn Battle of the Fantasy Epics! In the blue corner, Amazon’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, reportedly the most expensive TV show ever made! And in the red corner, it’s HBO’s younger upstart, House of the Dragon, a prequel to their ratings juggernaut Game of Thrones!