House of the Dragon
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Much like onGame of Thrones, the good guys ofHouse of the Dragonalways appear on the verge of collapse.
In a single swoop, Queen Rhaenyra lost the lone dovish member of her small councilandan experienced dragon.
And yet, my distress on these pages is somewhat performative.
Without Rhaenyss steady hand, theyre undoubtedly worse.
What is clear is that season two has finally found its engine.
So, what is the score going into Rooks Rest?
Like last week, Daemon still only has Harrenhal and insomnia.
But dream sequences are a lazy form of character development.
I doubt these dreams are even revealing anything to the dreamer.
Daemon knows he runs on rancor.
Daemon insults young Tully by wishing his absent grandsire a hasty trip to the grave.
Instead, Daemon decides to engage directly with the hawkish Blackwoods.
Who else has blond hair, a dragon, and a heart rotted with resentment?
Aegon, too, is simmering with petulance this week.
Hes pissy over Cristons so-called kingmaking.
Hes frustrated that Larys has allowed the dreary Harrenhal to (tactically) fall to Rhaenyra.
And hes fuming that Aemond and Criston have schemed behind his back to take Rooks Rest.
To be fair to Aegon, council life does seem like one endlessly recycled conversation.
Oh, drats, we need to requisition more livestock to feed our dragons.
Boohoo, the smallfolk are suffering.
Its the same old story each week on Dragonstone, too.
(She still hasnt returned from her secret trip to Kings Landing by the beginning of the episode.)
Why wont she, you know, do anything?
House of the Dragonloves to draw a parallel, and this week is Drinks Week.
Lamely, Alicent tells him shes been laid up by lamprey pie, which caused me to Google lampreys.
He lets Alicent know he knows shes had the abortion juice.
He lets her know he knows shes sleeping with Criston.
He even manages to let her know he knows Viserys didnt truly choose Aegon.
How does Larys know everything he knows?
To counter Laryss cryptic insinuations, she goes steely.
To counter Aegons sulking, shes sharp and unsentimental.
The other drink on Drinks Week doesnt have a name.
Its not his fault, she says.
Like her absent Lord Larys, Alys is acting like a student of deduction.
Daemon has sent no ravens since his arrival; no ravens means a quarrel with the wife.
And the reason to fight with the wife is self-evident: He covets her throne.
Anyway, the potion doesnt work.
Or maybe it works perfectly, leaving Daemon even more incapacitated.
The man cant remember summoning the Blackwoods or why he did so.
He imagines his past right in front of him, pouring him a glass of water in Harrenhal.
Harrenhal, Harrenhal, Harrenhal.
How inconsequential is Rooks Rest?
So inconsequential that a good number of the obsessively plotted interactive Westeros maps available online dont even feature it.
And yet its where the Dance of the Dragons starts in earnest.
A missing little map dot that would change the course of history.
Ser Gwayne balks surely they will be spotted and met with Rhaenyras dragon power.
In retrospect, it smells exactly like a trap.
(Who said it better: the Black Queen orCersei?)
On TV, this is the kind of closure exclusively afforded to the dead.
If Rhaenys suspects her job looks too easy, she doesnt hesitate to burn his men to ash.
No one cares about Rooks Rest.
Not the very online cartographers of Westeros.
Meleys attacks Sunfyre on Rhaenyss whispered command, Attack Meleys.
She makes those other dragons look like dragons for ants.
But Vhagar doesnt go for Meleys to protect the king.
Aemond fires on his own brother; Aegon and Sunfyre plummet to the forest floor in a fiery ball.
If Rhaenys and Meleys headed toward the water right then, could they outrun Vhagar and live?
Rhaenys tightens the straps of her straddle and turns to make one last stand for Rooks Rest.
Inevitably, they crash to their deaths.
If Rhaenyra was struggling to amass a ground force before, this surely wont help.
Eventually, Criston finds Aemond, sword unsheathed, approaching Sunfyre and Aegon, both terribly injured.
Was he contemplating a mercy killing?
But hearing the prophecy in this context only serves to cheapen it.
How many wars have been waged by men claiming to fight for the greater good?
That the thrones they seek are incidental to their destinies?
Beware the true believer.
