Grand Maester Williams’s warning: My account of the House of the Dragon season one finale is dark and full of spoilers. It is,in my educated opinion, prudent that you should avert your eyes (or eye, as befits young Prince Aemond) now.
My Lords and Ladies, ten weeks of the prequel series to Game of Thrones have flown by faster than a flap of Vhagar’s huge dragon wings! Let us now look back at what went down in Episode 10, The Black Queen.
Recap:
We flee to Dragonstone with Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) and her beautiful dragon Meleys as she brings the bad tidings of King Viserys’ death and the subsequent crowning of the usurper Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) to Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), Daemon (Matt Smith) and their children.
Rhaenyra, who has been living her best domestic life, is of course, devastated by her father’s death and the news that the Greens have stolen her Iron Throne. She goes into early labour and has to take to the birthing chamber. Daemon, the ever lustful war lord, is ready to plunge the Seven Kingdoms into a brutal civil war but Rhaenyra, even in the throes of a painful labour, is determined to prevent that from happening. Her yells for Daemon, which many mistake for her crying out for his support, is actually to stop her devious uncle-husband from declaring war around the Painted Table. A huge part of Daemon’s evil plans include rounding up all of the dragons they have on Dragonstone, including the wild ones and the rarely seen mount of the Old King Jaehaerys, the mammoth Vermithor.
Daemon, already showing signs of chafing under Rhaenyra’s rule and decision to first gather all of her bannermen before striking at the Greens, decides to teach his stepsons and now heirs to the Iron Throne and Driftmark respectively, Jace (Harry Collett) and Luke (Elliot Grihault) what being a true ruler means. He drags two of the Kingsguard out to a cliff on Dragonstone and demand they declare their undying loyalty to Rhaenyra or face death by dragonfire. Cue an epic entrance by Caraxes that makes the guards quake in their boots
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Back in the birthing chamber, Rhaenyra is having a really tough time of it and refuses the help of her midwives and maids. Like the badass that she is, she pulls her stillborn sixth babe from her body. If Game of Thrones was known for its explicit sex scenes, House of the Dragon will go down as the show that was very gratuitous with its birthing scenes. As someone who wants six baby dragons herself, HOTD has made me pause a bit with its horrifying births. I am going to need TONS of milk of the poppy for that shit!
Daemon arrives just as Rhaenyra cradles their dead daughter but doesn’t go to comfort her. Apparently a scene was filmed where Daemon comforts his wife and its was cut.Remind me to make writer Sara Hess run zigzag across a field so that I can shoot her. For f***’sake! What does she have against making Daemon just a little bit more human and relatable? George R.R. Martin wrote him as a complex character whose love for his wife and children were the flipside to his mad Targaryen warrior. Why, for the love of the Gods, would that evil woman choose to ignore that?! Ugh.
Visenya (named for Aegon the Conqueror’s sister-wife and the original owner of Daemon’s sword Dark Sister)’s funeral is quickly turned into Queen Rhaenyra’s coronation when Ser Erryk Cargyll (Elliot Tittensor) presents her with Viserys’ crown. Daemon crowns her and leads everyone present in bending the knee to Rhaenyra. Everyone, that is, but the Queen Who Never Was, Princess Rhaenys.
This may seem like an insult to casual viewers but what is key to bear in mind here is that Rhaenys cannot pledge fealty to her niece until she knows what her husband, Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) wants to do. You will notice that she does have a slight smile on her face because finally, the Realm is accepting a woman as a ruler, an honour she was not afforded when she was up for the Iron Throne.
When Rhaenys finally reunites with her lord husband, that Targaryen temper flares brilliantly! Even on his sick bed, she gives Corlys a piece of her mind – she is furious that he left her for six years to grieve their children by himself and she is fed up with his schemes for power. Corlys, to be fair, is apologetic and ready to stay out of the civil war to retire to High Tide, their castle, with their granddaughters.
Rhaenys, though, has had a change of heart. While watching Luke and Jace training on the beach earlier, she realised that her son’s adoptive sons have no one looking out for them. Two of their fathers are dead and the third is losing his mind preparing for a war. She has finally accepted that Laenor loved Jace, Luke and Joffrey as his own and that for all intents and purposes, they are her grandsons. She also admires the restraint Rhaenyra is showing and the makings of a good Queen that she possesses. For this and out of love for Viserys, Rhaenys encourages Corlys to support Rhaenyra.
Which he does, in the gorgeously lit Chamber of the Painted Table. Who knew the table could be lit with fire? I love this meme:
While Corlys agrees with Daemon that Rhaenyra needs to strike the Iron Throne while it’s hot and kill the Greens, Rhaenyra and Rhaenys argue that they first need to gather the support of all of the lords who bent the knee 20 years ago. They need Houses Baratheon, Stark, Tully, Arryn etc to support them. With Rhaenyra and Daemon having to hold Dragonstone, Rhaenys, Jace and Luke offer to ride their dragons to the North and the Riverlands and call on the great lords.
There are two heavy emotional scenes here: first, Rhaenys and Rhaenyra share a look of love, respect and allyship as the former officially accepts the latter’s rule. The second is when Rhaenyra gives her sons Jace and Luke the letters to present to Lord Stark and Baratheon, not knowing that it will be the last time she sees one of them. The way she holds Luke’s hand to reassure him because he is still really just a boy, taking on a big mission, is so sweet.
Otto f***ing Hightower (Rhys Ifans) comes to call on the Blacks and demand they bend the knee to Aegon. In exchange, the Dowager Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) will allow Jace to inherit Dragonstone, Luke to inherit Driftmark and Joffrey will have a place at court. She is even offering to make Daemon’s sons with Rhaenyra, Aegon the Younger and Viserys, squires and cupbearers.
Daemon, being my favourite rogue, has some choice words to that insulting offer:
“I would rather feed my sons to dragons than have them carry shields and cups for your drunken usurper cUnt of a king”
Gotta love him! Rhaenyra, moved by Alicent’s “peace offering”, a torn page from the book that they read as teenagers, agrees to let the Greens know her decision the next day, dismisses Otto and goes back to the castle.
Back in the Chamber of the Painted Room, Daemon loses his everlasting mind as he openly challenges Rhaenyra’s decrees. Things get heated after Rhaenyra tries to remind Daemon that Aegon’s Song of Ice and Fire dream of fighting the Others during The Long Night is more important that setting the Realm on fire. They both realise that Viserys never imparted the secret about that vision to Daemon when he was the presumptive Heir to the Iron Throne because Viserys didn’t have any intention of actually having him become King.
Daemon chokes Rhaenyra in his moment of frustration, anger and grief. Frustration because she won’t go to war, anger because Viserys f***d him over and grief for his lost brother, his dead daughter and the memories this incident brought back – Laena killing herself and their unborn son by dragonfire.
After taking a few moments to let his grief out on the beach, Daemon ventures into the lairs of dragons under Dragonstone. Singing in High Valyrian, our Rogue Prince has one of the most epic scenes in both series thus far: Vermithor emerges from the dark and lights shit up with his almighty fire breath:
This is a nice callback to when Tyrion went looking for Rhaegal and Viserion in the vault in Meereen in Season 6 of Game of Thrones. In case you’re wondering what Daemon’s song is about: he is basically promising Vermithor that he will find him another rider.
Our finale ends with a tragic and tense fight. Luke, arriving at Storm’s End on his young dragon Arrax to remind Lord Borros (Roger Evans) of his father’s promise that House Baratheon will bend the knee to Rhaenyra, is unsettled when he sees Vhagar in the courtyard. That means his sadistic uncle Aemond One-Eye (Ewan Mitchell), whose injury he is responsible for, is there too. Lord Borros is a royal jackass, easily forgetting that he owes fealty to Luke’s legal grandmother Rhaenys since her mother was a Baratheon and refuses to honour his late father’s allegiance to Rhaenyra. He would much rather accept Aemond’s proposal of marriage to one of his many daughters and pledge his loyalty to Aegon’s rule.
Borros does stop Aemond, who is now sporting a sapphire eye not unlike the Night King’s, from taking Luke’s eye in his great hall, though. He washes his hands of anything that happens in the sky and thus, gives Aemond the leave he needs to play a dangerous game of cat and mouse, dragon style, in the storm outside.
This image of Vhagar flying over Arrax is like something out of a horror movie, which is ironic because Halloween is coming up:
Arrax blasts a small stream of fire at Vhagar, who takes it personally and … chomps up Arrax and Luke! Aemond, who perhaps just wanted to scare Luke, realises too late what he and his out of control dragon have done: started the bloody war, the Dance of the Dragons!
Look at that face:
In another important scene that got cut (f*** a white walker, people! Just give me an entire episode on ALL of the cut scenes that show Daemon being a good dad), Daemon finds Arrax’s head and realises that Luke is dead. Back in the actual episode, we see a crying Daemon walk into the Chamber of the Painted Table, take Rhaenyra’s hand with his shaking own and leads her away to break the news to her. Rhaenyra swoons a bit at the loss of another (and let’s be honest – her favourite) child before turning around and giving us that iconic Targaryen look that we know so well by now because her eight times great-granddaughter Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) will wear it 200 years later:
Impressions:
I was NOT a fan of Dany’s sudden about turn into the Mad Queen and I sure as shit don’t support the writers of House of the Dragon doing the same to Rhaenyra BUT… the woman lost her father, her baby, her throne AND her favourite son in the span of days. So, if you need me in 2024 when the second season arrives, this is how you’ll find me:
D’Arcy, as a non-binary actor, continues to amaze me with their full embodiment of a mother in pain, a wife at war with the love of her life and a Queen who not only has to win the love of her Realm but also vulnerably seeks the approval of her aunt/cousin and her Sea Lord husband. They balance this with a quiet sense of poise and determination that makes Rhaenyra a likeable character.
Rhaenyra wants peace. Rhaenyra is ready to be strategic about her plans of attack. She doesn’t want to be the Queen of Ashes. Something that Daemon has no such qualms about. And that is exactly why Viserys never had any intention of letting Daemon inherit the Iron Throne.
The thing that pisses me off most about how Daemon is being portrayed in Episode 8 and 10 is that Hess seems to completely disregard how Martin wrote him and describes him. There is this:
Why, for f***’s sake, is Hess so determined to ruin Daemon? Smith is out here, every week. bringing all of Daemon’s complexities to the screen and that woman wants to set him on fire. Let’s give it up for my man’s singing talent, though!
Ladies, if a man isn’t prepared to sing in High Valyrian to a huge ass, scary dragon for you, he isn’t worth it!
I am so damn happy that the writers finally worked in how much Rhaenys and Corlys love Jace, Luke and Joffrey, despite knowing they aren’t Laenor’s. Their overprotectiveness of their grandsons comes through much stronger in the source novel Fire&Blood.
Another plot point that is perhaps alluded to as Luke walks into Storm’s End is the lingering shot of his back and hair colour. In the book, Rhaenys inherited her Baratheon mother’s black hair (the same way that Jon inherited Lyanna Stark’s dark hair, instead of Rhaegar’s Targaryen silver tresses). Her hair colour is used to explain why Laenor’s “sons” have dark hair and so it is even harder for Alicent to prove they are not. Of course, by casting a black actor as Laenor in the show, the producers have now made the boys’ paternity all the harder to ignore.
That fight between Luke and Aemond is hard to watch. All the more so because Ewan Mitchell is obviously so much older than Elliot Grihault but perhaps that serves to highlight how ridiculous it is that Aemond,a grown man, is chasing Luke, a child, over the loss of an eye. Everything that happens in the next season is Aemond’s fault!
Theory:
We have TWO entire goddamn years to wait for season 2 of House of the Dragon and there will no doubt be plenty of theories floating around in that time. Do yourselves a favour and either read or listen to George R.R.Martin’s Fire&Blood novel.
What happens next, according to the book at least, is that Corlys and Daemon rise up in fire and blood to avenge Luke’s death. Daemon has lost a son, Corlys has lost his heir -there is nothing they will not do to avenge their lost child. Rhaenys will lend her and her dragon Meleys’ strength to the fight, which she unfortunately loses.
Rhaenyra will have her crown or her brother’s head and oh, is that fight going to be delicious!
Now that Larys Strong has such a dirty and powerful hold over Alicent, there is no telling what he will do with it. In the book, he is a caring force who smuggles Alicent, her son and his children out of the Red Keep when Rhaenyra conquers King’s Landing. Who knows what other fetishes Alicent will have to indulge to ensure her family’s safety in seasons to come?
House of the Dragon will return to HBO Max, M-Net and DStv in 2024.
