TWISTS! TWISTS! TWISTS!
Twist of the episode, and the series so far, is that Viserys chose Alicent to be his new queen, instead of Laena Velaryon. Viserys’ reasoning, besides trying to spite Corlys, is that Laena is “too old.” Yeah, let’s go with the 15-year-old instead of the 12-year-old! The plot is showcasing some other motivations other than age and spite. Otto, the Hand and father to Alicent, tries to alienate Viserys from other players. For example, when Viserys brings up Corlys’ and Rhaenys’ marriage proposal, he immediately says that this is an overstep and should have been brought up to the council directly. Viserys is showing signs that he’s recognizing the overreach with his reply that “that’s what I am doing presently.” That still doesn’t stop Viserys from choosing Alicent, who was prodded to comfort the king by her father. Another motivation by Viserys for choosing an older wife would be that these Iron Throne cut wounds aren’t healing. Time may be short for King Viserys.
Now, Corlys and Rhaenys do have another son named Laenor, of similar age to Rhaenyra. Perhaps Viserys could make amends with his Velaryon cousins with a betrothal between those two?
SEEDS OF WAR
Alicent and Otto don’t plan for the new queen to just be a happy wife to Viserys, right? Marriage leads to children, and how are these kids going to feel about being after a woman, Rhaenyra, in the line of succession? The show is keeping these kiddos hidden very well, especially with the time jump that is coming to age them up. Rhaenyra wasn’t exactly thrilled about Alicent being chosen as queen, especially with them growing up as childhood friends.
DRAGONSTONE
Daemon and Mysaria caused some ruckus on Dragonstone, and it turned out to all be for nothing! Daemon drew some Valyrian steel and ended up handing over the dragon egg he stole without a hitch. In the books, Mysaria actually was pregnant and was forced by Viserys to send Mysaria and her unborn child across the Narrow Sea. The ship hit a storm, Mysaria lost her child, and Daemon was angry with his brother for a long, long time. The big change is that she’s just chilling with him and her only want is to be liberated from fear.
STEPSTONES
Time to see some more Dragonfire third-degree burns! Corlys will lead the navy, while Daemon will fight from the skies on Caraxes. If you remember, the first season of Game of Thrones didn’t include any major battles on screen; in fact, Tyrion was knocked out and missed what would have been the biggest one. That was due to budgetary concerns, which House of the Dragon does not have. Expect a full spectacle on this. Crab man is living on borrowed time.
Two episodes in and we still haven’t even touched the actual timeline where the Dance of the Dragons takes place. House of the Dragon is taking its time and, in doing so, has put together two killer episodes.
