Hey, HOTD fans, how are we doing after last week’s deadly episode? Everyone still mourning the Grandmother of Dragons, Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) and her Red Queen Meleys, who were so stealthily taken out by the seriously hot but crazy Aemond One-Eye (Ewan Mitchell) and his beast Vhagar?

Cry with me again for this:

As much as I enjoyed this view of the sadistic Aemond:

The third dragon I would love to ride after his uncle Daemon and his great x 9 nephew Jon ..Grrrr. Ewan Mitchell is all kinds of goddamn hot! Image credit: Twitter

And wanted to fly away with him when he looked like this:

He may be a sadistic kinslayer but f*** is he gorgeous too! Image credit: HBO

I must keep my eye on the prize- the Iron Throne- and guide you all on what to expect now that we’ve surpassed the half-way mark of this eight-episode season.

My lords and ladies, here is our current list of fighters and their prize dragons:

Team Black (because as Dany’s stan, Jon’s second wife, Daemon’s dream lover AND a loyal Targaryen, I pledge fealty to Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), the one true heir of King Viserys I):

Moondancer whose rider is Lady Baela Targaryen.

Team Green:

My predictions for Episode 5 and the countdown to the season finale:

Unforgivable backstabbing, horrifying deaths (the sounds of that decapitation still haunt my dreams!), welcoming of bastards unknown to the Targaryens and Velayrons until now (hey Catelyn Stark, ever read a history book about blended families? Might have helped you with Jon, huh?) and a healthy disregard for being called a Kinslayer (that’s 3, Aemond.THREE!) will ensure that things move at a quick pace from here on out.

Embracing your husband’s bastard and telling him to raise him up and make him his heir? Rhaenys, you are EVERYTHING. Catelyn Stark could never. Image credit: HBO

Episode 4 really gave me Game of Thrones Season 6 Battle of the Bastard vibes with its slow motion warfare capture, the iconic loyalty and weary hero vibes Rhaenys was showing off that echoes in Jon facing Ramsay’s army centuries later.

Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) will feel the loss of Rhaenys, the last living adultier adult and clear-minded relative she had left, keenly. Without Rhaenys to counterbalance Daemon (Matt Smith)’s darker impulses, Rhaenyra is going to give in to the blood and fire lust and this may not leave her Realm in peace as she so badly wants it to.

Aemond, that hot but dangerous moron, has now taken Aegon out (or at least incapacitated him for a while) and cleared his path to becoming heir to the Iron Throne. Unlike the Fire and Ice source novel where Aegon has a second son Maelor to succeed him and Aemond names himself Prince Regent, the Iron Throne is Aemond’s now, in all but name. With more and more lords raising their banners for Team Green, high on the power of his dragon and his prowess on the battlefield, Aemond is going to be cocky AF and not see his potential downfall coming right at him.

Should Daemon call The Ghostbusters to Harrenhal?!

See, Daemon may be starring in his own version ofΒ The Haunted MansionΒ or The Haunting of HarrenhalΒ right now, with visions of his dead wife Laena (Savannah Steyn) , the younger, innocent version of Rhaenerya (Milly Alcock) ) and having to face all of his other demons, but that strategic war brain never quits and he is cooking up something BIG. Big enough that Aemond is going to have to ask the only other brother he has, and potentially doesn’t hate, the unseen Daeron and his dragon Tessarion, for help. Yikes.

Rhaenyra and Daemon’s eventual sacking of King’s Landing takes a very different turn in the source novel so I am very interested to see how George RR Martin and his show writers adapt and deviate Daemon’s master plan onscreen.

From the Episode 5 trailer, we already know there will be some insane developments, in particular the parading of Meleys’ severed head through the Red Keep and Flea Bottom:

Team Black’s dragons may not be strong enough to take on Vhagar by themselves each, but together, they could seriously put a dent in Team Green’s defenses. From the trailer for Episode 5, it looks like Rhaenyra will be taming Vermithor, the former stead of her great-grandfather Jaehaerys I, whom Daemon awakened with a song at the end of last season. Seasmoke, Laenor’s dragon, has been wooing his bastard brother Aadam of Hull (Clinton Liberty) and Jace (Harry Collett)is rounding up the other dragon seedlings to claim the riderless dragons flying around Dragonstone.

Either way, each side is coming with Fire and Blood for what they think is theirs.

We may not all have Rhaenys’ kickass dragon seat belt, but I suggest strapping in, my lords and ladies. The Dance of the Dragons is about to seriously heat up and it is going to be an earth scorcher!

House of the Dragon airs on HBO on Sundays, airs on MNET 101 on Mondays at 9pm and is available to stream on Showmax.