House of the Dragon season 2

[CharlesPhipps]

BTW, what the hell did Rhaenyra intend to offer as terms?

She didn't seem to have any counter offer to the Greens since Alicent asks if she plans to surrender.

At least Alicent offered Dragonstone and Driftmark.

They were things Rhaenyra already had but it was an offer. What did Rhaenyra intend to offer Aegon if he stepped down?

[CharlesPhipps]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 2×04 “THE RED DRAGON AND THE GOLD” is an answer to every fan who complained about House of the Dragon being too slow. It finally has one of those glorious battles between dragons that has been promised since Season One. There’s going to be some complaints from the fans about tactics, undoubtedly, and how some of the scenes don’t make too much sense but I am overall satisfied with the results. A lot of things change on the game board of thrones and we sadly lose a character who has been with us from the beginning.

The premise is that the Blacks are in dissaray from the abandonment of Rhaenyra during their critical hour of need with Daemon having also taken off to raise his own army. This doesn’t do much to paint Rhaenyra as a good queen candidate since you think it would have been fairly obvious to appoint someone in charge while she was gone or to take over should something happen during her ill-conceived peace initiative. It doesn’t paint a particularly flattering opinion of her son and heir either since he clearly did nothing to take over either.

Daemon’s attempts to garrison Harrenhal are shown to be a comedy of errors as the castle is a broken ruin with Lord Larys Strong having emptied its treasury. Harrenhal is basically depicted as Castle Ravenloft and the only thing it is lacking is a vampire lord. His hallucinations and dreams are very well done. We also get some more depiction of Alys Rivers who brings some nice First Men magic and surreality. One of the big weaknesses of Hot D is the lack of Starks and their strong contrast to the Targaryens.

One of the scenes that bothered me this episode is Daemon meeting with Oscar Tully, the heir of House Tully. Basically, Grover says that he can’t help Daemon because his grandfather is incapacitated and won’t usurp his authority. The thing is, I’m pretty sure that when your liege lord gives you an order, you can’t take a sick day. That’s treason and worse than the Late Lord Frey’s hesitation.

House of the Dragon has the weird attitude that if you don’t have the lords in charge that they just sit around on their bottoms, waiting for someone to come back. Chains of command exist in feudalism just like they do in the modern age. The show is really not suggesting any of the factions have much organization or initiative. At least Rhaenyra tells her son the Song of Ice and Fire since otherwise it would have died with her.

Alicent Hightower takes some moon tea to either prevent herself from becoming pregnant by Ser Criston Cole or to abort a pregnancy she might have already had from him. It’s a reminder her character is only about 35 in-universe (the actress being 30) and pregnancy is less likely but hardly impossible. Certainly, while possible of passing off another child as her husband’s (lich as he was at the end), the Dornish features would have been a dead giveaway.

Alicent seems to have done a bit of a circle in terms of her characterization as she was a lot more ambitious, manipulative, and brutal after the initial time skip in Season One. Now, after finding out that Viserys never wanted his son on the throne, she starts going back to that attitude. I hope they keep this change as I found that Alicent more interesting as a contrast to Rhaenyra. One of her best moments in the series is Alicent shutting down her son and saying she should rule in his stead.

The actual dragon battle is a triumph of CGI and something we’ve been waiting for the entire time. We see Meleys, Vhagar, and Sunfyre duke it out over Rook’s Roost. A small castle that ends up becoming one of the most important battles of the war. The fact they let Duskendale fall without providing much of a defense is something that doesn’t make much sense in the show. I’ve complained about how the Blacks haven’t exactly proven themselves worthy feudal lords but they finally do lend themselves to living up to their obligations. Sadly, the cost is tremendous. I also love the twist with Aemond finally taking the steps that Daemon, himself, wasn’t willing to.

[CharlesPhipps]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 2x5 "Regent" is an interesting contrast to "The Red Dragon and the Gold" because one of the objectively best episodes of the season is followed by one of the worst. Unfortunately, this episode suffers not only from dramatically slowing down the pace of the previous episode but also meanders in character development as well as world-building.

One of the things I was worried about with the racing through of the plotlines of the Dance of the Dragon's backstory for Season One was the fact that just about 90% of the interesting things that happened during this time period were the build-up. Once the actual fighting between the dragons begins, there's not really that much in terms of character development or intrigue to follow up on. This, unfortunately, is abundantly clear here and shows the showrunners don't have any idea where to go without George R.R. Martin as a guide.

Basically, the characters sit around not doing much this episode. Things happen, don't get me wrong but they're handled with no fanfare. Aemond assumes the regency for his comatose brother, Aegon II, but no one cares about the latter as a person so it has no weight. Alicent is pouty that both her lovers, Larys Strong and Criston Cole, side with Aegon over her. Whether she wanted Aegon II on the throne to protect her children versus that he was a pliable idiot she could rule through seems to have been switched out as her motivations between seasons.

If this episode is going to be remembered in ten years, it'll be for two scenes. The first is the parading of Meleys head through the streets of Kings Landing. The Greens are doing their best to portray this as a great victory for King Aegon II and a heroic stand against a monster. However, said monster is the source of the Targaryens power base and instead causes the people to start to doubt whether the Targayrens are invincible after all.

A lot of fans have been waiting for some sort of follow up to the events of 1x09 where Rhaenys burst through the dragon pit and killed a bunch of peasants. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, this follow-up more or less cements that it is effectively discontinuity in the show universe. The people of King's Landing have no grudge against Meleys and Princess Rhaenys is portrayed as the saintly lover of the Smallfolk that she was in every appearance other than that one episode.

The second thing people will remember about this episode will be Prince Daemon Targaryen ****ing his mother. Yeah, there's an out of nowhere scene where he has sex with a beautiful white haired woman who is praising him being the superior son before it is revealed it is his mum, Alyssa Targaryen. I know you don't hire Matt Smith just sit around in a castle but that was definitely a choice. We also find out Daemon is pressing his own claim to the Iron Throne a a Claudius-style "evil uncle."

One element that shows HotD's struggle with is also the "modernization" of morality in the show where the girls act like teenagers in the 21st century. No one acts like Medieval mores apply to them and this applies to how the show vilifies Daemon's decisions in the Riverlands. For example, the Brackens have begun an insurrection against their king and do not recognize his authority. So Daemon unleashes the Blackwoods upon them to pillage, burn, and worse. As Henry V shows, this is not remotely abnornal behavior and Tywin Lannister didn't get any real crap for it either when he was retaliating for far worse. Being an outlaw means you're beyond the king's protection ("outside the law") and if they wanted protection from the king's bannermen, they should appeal to King Aegon II/King Aemond or bend the knee.

Unfortunately, the show's utter lack of skill depicting politics applies to the characters it wants to portray as good leaders. Rhaenyra struggles to make any sort of decision whatsoever regarding alliances or military deployment. She wanted to avoid war but never made any sort of strategic concessions or diplomatic offers. Rhaenyra cheats the Arryns by sending two baby dragons to the Eyrie, praises her son Jace for making an alliance with the Freys by offering them Harrenal (?!), and doesn't go meet with Daemon himself despite the fact she did so as a teenager. Rhaenyra was many things in the books but the show version is flat out a weak monarch and far more like her father than Maegor the Cruel. At this point, I'm supporting Aemond the Usurper.

[CharlesPhipps]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 2×06 “Smallfolk” is the sixth episode of the second season. After the previous episode received a lot of backlash for the sudden downturn in drama, there’s a lot of controversy about this one as well. However, it’s actually a fairly even split between those people who find this to be a fantastic episode with lots of character development and those people who find it to be a terrible one that continues the trend of “nothing happening.” I am actually of the former category and give this episode high marks.

Basically, there has been a lot of wheel spinning for season two of House of the Dragon. I mentioned how much of a mistake it was to skip to the Dance of the Dragons over most of the political maneuvering that got wrapped up in Season One. HBO executives assumed that the big epic battles were what people wanted to see but the thing is that so much of what makes those battles meaningful is the character development of the parties involved. Basically, the reason the Red Wedding and Ned Starks execution are important is because we know everyone involved.

This episode benefits from the fact that it wraps up a lot tof the wheel spinning and character development that seemed to be going nowhere. I think it’s setting up an epic battle for King’s Landing in the finale and has moved all of the pieces on the board. While this is an episode where seemingly “nothing” happens, it’s actually something where I believe a great deal happens in terms of both characters as well as political developments.

Rhaenyra is trying to get herself more dragon riders by looking to the Targaryen lineages of legitimate heirs. Steffon Darklyn of her Kingsguard tries to claim Seasmoke but it ends in his horrific burning. This is probably more realistic than a bunch of nobles lining up to claim dragons, only to be burned one after the other but still feels like a downgrade from the book. Rhaenyra has been made far meeker and more circumspect than the one of the books. I feel like they’ve hurt the character if they wanted her to be the next Daenerys because part of what made the Stormborn Queen so awesome was her willingness to get her hands dirty as a woman ruler.

Daemon finally seems to start taking lessons from his hallucinations in Harrenhal and has visions of King Viserys. Sadly, none of these scenes have new lines from Paddy Considine. Still, Daemon starts to realize that being empathic isn’t weakness. We also get Alys Rivers promising to provide Daemon “help” in getting the Riverlands back under control. There’s a cute scene with his dragon Caraxes, who clearly wants to go play with his master but just watches him slowly losing his mind like a dog in the background.

Aegon Targaryen remains incapacitated in his bed with Aemond silently wishing him to die. Unfortunately, while Aemond possesses great skill as a leader, he also has only “on” mode and immediately alienates Larys Strong. This results in Larys deciding to privately approach the now-maimed and crippled Aegon in hopes of once more finding a way to power. Alicent also finds herself dismissed from the Small Council as Aemond takes a petty revenge on the woman that he believes treated him as irrelevant for his entire life. Now Alicent’s disempowering is complete but that just makes her more dangerous (I think).

One element I liked in the episode is Rhaenyra pulls a page out of the Tyrell’s handbook and after starving the people of King’s Landing with her blockade (something I wonder at the specifics of since they still have routes through the Crownlands), she proceeds to send a bunch of food in to turn the mob against the Hightowers. This is a strange choice given that it’s the exact opposite really in Fire and Blood but we’ll see how things go in upcoming seasons. It is a powerful scene to almost see Lady Alicent and Helaena almost ripped to shreds, though.

Which brings me to two controversial points about the episode that I am okay with and not at all happy with. The first of these is the sign that they’re replacing F&B’s Nettles with Rhaena (Daemon’s daughter). Given Nettles represents a young woman of possibly common born stock who tames a dragon through animal husbandry versus magic, a controversial position to begin with, this is a huge blow to the narrative subversiveness of her arc. Bluntly, I think it’s the worst change to the story they’ve made so far. Rhaena’s actress deserves more to do in the story, yes, or she can be cut but this isn’t a tale for a noblewoman.

The next controversial element is that Rhaenyra and Mysaria kiss after a moment of shared intimacty. I have no problem with this scene really as Martin loves highlighting that history may not have recorded LGBTA relationships very often (or they were excised later on) but they certainly existed. It also puts an interesting spin on their later interactions from F&B. There’s also a question about whether it is a sincere relationship moment between two lonely people or the latter attempting to get her hooks into Rhaenyra. My only objection is that the scene comes after a horrific revelation by Mysaria that should in no way lead to romance anymore than Tyrion’s story about his wife.

Overall, impressive episode.

[CharlesPhipps]

https://beforewegoblog.com/house-of-the ... ed-sowing/

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 2×07 "Red Sowing" is a solid episode that demonstrates just why I watch this series every week. This episode deals with the "dragonseeds" of House Targaryen, which are the bastard offspring of the various royals over the past century. All of them possess the potential to claim a dragon but have never had the opportunity until this moment.

The premise is Rhaenyra sends out a call to all of the bastards of King's Landing via her acting-Master of Whispers, Mysaria. Notably, despite promoting Corlys Velaryon to the position of Hand, she makes no effort to consult him on her actions. Indeed, Rhaenyra continues to feel like she is not receiving respect from her Small Council but unilaterally makes all of her decisions without consulting them as well as ignores all of their advice. Which means she should probably either replace them or amend her behavior. Despite this close relationship with Mysaria, though, there's no sign of the kiss from last week having any follow-up.

Daemon Targaryen finally gets the allegiance of the Riverlands armies but the cost of his self-respect as well as his most loyal bannerman. Oscar Tully proceeds to take command of the Tully family and uses the pantomime of bringing Daemon to heel to unite the Riverlands houses behind him. Unfortunately, this results in the head of House Blackwood paying with his life. Given they committed a bunch of atrocities flying the banner of House Targaryen (Black) when Daemon asked them to do so without his leave, I can't say I have much sympathy. Perhaps the most interesting element is that Daemon seems to finally realize he doesn't want to be King of Westeros.

Aemond Targaryen finds himself increasingly isolated at his own council. He's a lot more demanding of respect than Aegon II but it turns out that being intimidating doesn't necessarily lead to loyalty (as Daemon found out in the Riverlands). Larys and the rest of the Small Council hide crucial details from him as others plot to help Aegon II recover from his horrific injuries (limited as his recovery may be). There's a good scene where the last of Aegon's appointees to the Kingsguard are sent to the Wall for their failures during the riot last week.

The actual dragon claiming ceremony is a clusterfuck from beginning to end. The dragon keepers ultimately put themselves out of a job by refusing to participate in the claiming. Rhaenyra finally starts showing her proper Targaryen ruthlessness by forcing all of the dragonseeds to participate even if they start getting murdered left and right. Three of them manage to survive, however, with Hugh the Hammer and Ulff managing to claim the dragons Vermithor as well as Silverwing.

I am still furious about the fact they are replacing Nettles with Raena but they continue this plot with the latter seeking to claim the wild dragon Sheepstealer. They've portrayed Jeyne Arryn so unlikable and bullying of a teenage girl that I hope that Raena burns her alive. It doesn't help that she's committing treason against Queen Rhaenyra. That would perhaps turn my opinion around on Rhaena.

In conclusion, this was a solid and entertaining episode for HOTD. I feel like the fundamental mistake of this series has always been whitewashing Rhaenyra. Seeing her happily send her bastard cousins, nieces, and nephews to their mass grave is probably when she's at her most interesting.

[CharlesPhipps]

https://beforewegoblog.com/house-of-the ... as-review/

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON "The Queen who Ever Was" 2x08 is the final episode of season two of House of the Dragon. It has been a controversial season afflicted with numerous delays, budget cuts, and issues over the writers' strike. As such, it ended up having a gap year between the first season and second that sucked out a lot of momentum from the series. Unfortunately, we're going to be having another gap year with no House of the Dragon in 2025. This is somewhat alleviated by the fact that we will have a six episode season of DUNK AND EGG to tide us over.

So, how was the final episode of the season? Well, it was okay. Unfortunately, this episode is going to go down in history of A Song of Ice and Fire canon as an infamous series of choices. It's a fine episode with a lot of drama as well as fine acting but it feels very much like the 8th episode in a ten episode season. This is something I felt immediately after watching it and have seen echoed on various social media platforms. It's not that it's bad, it's that it should have a climax that it just doesn't.

The premise for this episode is the set up for taking King's Landing. Daemon Targaryen has finally assembled the host necessary to invade (way after it would have done any good) and receives his final Harrenhal vision: one of Game of Thrones' Daenerys Targaryen as well as the White Walkers. Linking Aegon's Conquest and now the Dance of the Dragons to the events of the original series has always been a controversial choice (I'm going to use that word multiple times) but I think it is fundamentally an apology from HBO. It is an acknowledgement that Daeny was the Prince who was Promised who saved the world, no matter what happened afterward or how stupid. Either way, Daemon renews his fealty to Rhaenyra and the show is better for it.

Aemond is finding his rulership of King's Landing falling apart as he is incapable of leadership that doesn't involve taking revenge. He scorns the Smallfolk and punishes a loyalist town to Rhaenyra for no reason other than to salve his ego after being forced to retreat. He attempts to marshal his sister, Helaena, against Rhaenyra's dragons but she has no desire to burn anyone. Worse, she uses her gift of prophecy to say that Aegon will once again sit on the Iron Throne. Also, that Aemond will disappear in the God's Eye of Harrenhal.

The bastard dragon riders are also proving an uneasy fit for Dragonstone. Addam of Hull and Hugh Hammer are doing fine, mostly understanding that you should keep your mouth closed and your ears sharp. However, Ulff the White is getting himself into no end of trouble with the Crown Prince as Jace despises the bastards for reminding him of his own misbegotten heritage. Ironically, this makes me like Jace a great deal more as he reminds me of Book Jon Snow a lot more than the final seasons of GOT Snow.

Rhaenyra is finally starting to remember her Fire and Blood persona as the power of having multiple dragon riders under her command immediately goes to her head. She plans on destroying Lannisport and Oldtown, no longer caring about avoiding mass civilian casaulties. You can also sense that she's not reading the room correctly with the fact she promises to make them knights if they serve her well. Given any knight can knight another and there are, in fact poor knights in Westeros, this is a ridiculous undervaluing of their services. The seeds are definitely sewn for some bastardly treason.

The most controversial decision this season (see, I used that word again) was definitely the arrival of Alicent Hightower for yet another clandestine meeting. This meeting is one that the Fire and Blood Alicent Hightower would have never made because it ends with her deciding to betray the Green faction to Rhaenyra. Worse, she is willing to give up both Aegon as well as Aemond to Rhaenyra's now twisted sense of "justice." It puts a new spin on her meeting with her earlier this evening as she never intended to spare Aegon if he surrendered.

In conclusion, the episode was fine. Just fine. The lack of a Battle of the Gullet or taking of King's Landing leaves it feeling like a poor finale. It just feels like there's more set up in a season that was full of set up. With the revelation that there's only four seasons, this means that the subsequent two seasons will be stuffed but I'm not sure they'll ever get to the action proper.