Ser Otto Hightower – Simon’s Incoherent Blog

House of the Dragon: season 1, episode 9 – The Green Council

“It is our fate, I think, to always crave what is given to another.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

The King is dead, long live the…. ?

The death of a ruler without a clear succession is one of the most dramatic events a nation can face, and one of the most treacherous. The land is left without a ruler, while squabbling factions gather their forces to cement their claims. There is a name for a time like this, a name which sounds more solemn than the frantic consolidation of support that inevitably fills it. It is an interregnum.

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 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.