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I by no means EVER skip a gap credit score sequence. One of the best of them perform as an overture, establishing tone, and suggesting the place a sequence will journey. This works for dramas (Friday Night time Lights, The Sopranos, and Six Toes Beneath spring instantly to thoughts) in addition to comedies. (You mainly didn’t even want to look at Weeds — that’s how completely distilled its themes have been by its credit score sequence).
The brand new Home of the Dragon opener is especially unskippable, as attractive as it’s evocative. Watch intently, and also you’ll discover the historical past of Home Targaryen woven in tapestry. However it’s the medium itself that caught my eye earlier than episode two. Particular person vignettes are rendered in richly-hued embroidery, however they’re linked by white material that goes inky crimson, like a contemporary bandage on a seeping wound. The Targaryens’ is a narrative dressed up in brocade, woven into sheets of dried blood. Blood is spilling once more now: Lucerys, adopted by little Jaehaerys. What’s going to the tapestry seem like if it’s ever full? Will Helaena Targaryen, who embroiders her lifeless son’s funeral cloak, finally sit down to stitch his quick life onto the household’s tragic scroll?
When the episode opens, the guards are rounding up everybody within the Pink Preserve, hoping to apprehend Jaehearys’ killers earlier than they’ll escape. From the nursery, a maid carries a blood-soaked towel, like one thing you might weave Targaryen lore onto later. (I assume Clare Kilner, who directed this episode, in addition to the underrated Debra Messing rom-com The Marriage ceremony Date, additionally by no means skips a credit score sequence.) Solely moments have handed for the reason that finish of the season premiere. Everybody within the fort is working on fumes and anguish, no yet one more so than King Aegon.
Provided that final week he was treating Jaehaerys extra like a toy than a toddler, I used to be caught off guard by the depths of Aegon’s misery. First, in an early scene, screaming his vengeance into the void: “I’m the King. I declare struggle!” (Thanks for clearing that up, Eggy, however I’m fairly certain struggle simply declared you.) However once more he shows it, extra privately and earnestly, on the episode’s tail-end, when his outrage is all however used up and he’s sobbing into his personal fingers. “Aegon the Magnanimous”? I believe not. “Aegon the Dragoncock”? Uncertain. However “Aegon the Human Being”? Which may nonetheless be a title that fits him, no less than when he’s not performing blazing indignation for an viewers.
Alicent glimpses her son in that weak pose, and but she doesn’t go to him. She’s been her youngsters’s champion however hardly ever a lot of a mom. I used to be horrified by how shortly her concern for Helaena gave approach to her concern about whether or not Helaena deliberate to disclose her midnight lover. That Alicent is affected by Christian-style guilt is evident. However that she might overcome that guilt to participate within the political spectacle of her grandson’s funeral and never provide her son consolation in his secret nook of mourning is telling. That she runs straight again to mattress with Ser Criston Cole within the last moments of the episode screams all the pieces I have to learn about her. Alas, I get forward of myself.
“We mustn’t be shaken by this,” Otto Hightower tells his daughter, who’s clearly shaken by this, this being her child grandson’s BEHEADING. Alicent’s “sins” have been already engaged on her conscience within the final episode when she made a half-hearted try and name off the affair with Criston. Right here, her guilt is compounded by the truth that the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard was abed along with her when he must have been standing watch over the household. Otto, nonetheless, is just too busy determining tips on how to make lemonade from lifeless youngsters to note his daughter’s torment. When gods shut a door, they open a parade route.
Aegon fears the crime will sign the weak point of his reign. It’s all Alicent’s fault for wanting Rhaenyra spared within the first place. Or it’s his guards’ fault for letting her operatives inside his fort partitions. However Otto, the last word spin physician, sees a chance to vary the narrative. The smallfolk have been there for Aegon’s sham coronation; they noticed Rhaenys defect on dragonback. In brief, they already know his grandson is weak. However this can be a likelihood to point out the folks Rhaenyra’s savage desperation, no matter whether or not or not she actually was the one to order the execution. Otto recommends a state funeral, with a procession winding from the Pink Preserve to the Dragonpit. Don’t merely inform folks that the Black Queen is a child killer; bathe them with the tears of Alicent and Helaena, who’re to be pulled in a wagon behind the younger scion in opposition to each their needs.
The funeral is terrible. Within the low gentle of early morning, King’s Touchdown is much more of a monochrome wasteland than standard. The solar refuses to shine. The tawny fort partitions learn drab and grey. Jaehaerys seems ghostly white, as he did in life, the neckline of his robe pulled simply low sufficient to verify the stitches used to reattach his head — recovered from Blood’s sack — are conspicuous. And in case this vile homicide porn is just too refined, a city crier slowly stalks the carriage, little question at Otto’s behest. “Behold the works of Rhaenyra … Defiler of the harmless.” What it lacks in solemnity, it additionally lacks in subtlety.
In the meantime, Helaena and Queen Mum get to work, staring blankly and drained on the smallfolk gathered alongside the procession. Besides their WHAM marketing campaign hits a literal pothole — the place does all of the tax cash Aegon’s been levying go? — and Helaena struggles to cover her writhing discomfort with the unwashed lots. The unwashed lots, for his or her half, mistake her reticence for a mom’s mourning. “A curse on Rhaenyra the monstrous,” somebody calls from the gang, so I assume Otto’s plan is working.
That is the pageantry of demise for political acquire. I pitied Helaena, however I didn’t mourn along with her till we have been again contained in the nursery, watching servants disassemble her lifeless son’s small cover mattress. The mattress disappearing, not to get replaced by a much bigger mattress for a kid who’d outgrown it, achieved poignance within the type of “On the market: Child footwear, by no means worn.” The servants’ work is hampered by Criston blocking the doorway, proper the place he ought to have been standing guard the evening prior. Later, Alicent will submerge herself within the tub, however there’s no absolution for what she’s achieved. For those who ask me, although, she doesn’t want forgiveness from the gods for her affair; her sin was to lift feverish lunatics like Aegon and Aemond.
To persuade Blood to surrender Daemon, Larys Sturdy needn’t choose up his devices of torture — simply show them. Earlier than phrase of the homicide has even reached Rhaenyra, Aegon has bludgeoned her would-be flagbearer to demise with an ornate mace. Because of Otto’s fast dispatching of ravens, all of Westeros is speaking about Rhaenyra’s wicked techniques. Again on Dragonstone, Rhaenyra obstinately calls for that ravens be despatched kingdomwide to disclaim the allegations. A raven for a raven? I perceive desirous to clear her identify, however this isn’t a chilly struggle anymore. Buying and selling ravens isn’t simply unhealthy TV; it’s a waste of time when you have to be elevating a military. Plus, who’s going to imagine Rhaenyra when even males who sit at her council, like Ser Alfred Broome, suppose it’s believable that the grieving Black Queen ordered some hasty little nepoticide?
The consequential showdown isn’t between Rhaenyra and her council; it’s between Rhaenyra and her husband. Daemon, happy with the chaos he’s brewed, can’t be bothered to hide a smirk. He wished a struggle, so he made a large number to assist it alongside. We are able to’t know for sure whether or not Blood and Cheese acted together with his specific approval in killing Jaehaerys or solely a wink and a nudge, however Daemon doesn’t apologize to his spouse and queen for damaging her fame or threatening her skill to win new allies. She tells him that she doesn’t belief him, which doesn’t wound Daemon as a lot because it ought to as a result of he’s not reliable.
In non-public, they dig at outdated wounds. Her throne is his “stolen” inheritance; her hero of a father is his “weak” older brother. Truthfully, this seems like a dialog they need to have had earlier than they bought married. Rhaenyra calls Daemon “pathetic,” and he wordlessly leaves the room. Presumably, to show he’s an enormous, robust dragon man and under no circumstances pathetic, he attire in full armor and mounts his big crimson steed. And thank ye Gods. The picture of Caraxes flying from the cave, his shadow darkening the ocean beneath, was precisely what the episode wanted. As a result of whereas the forged places in some stellar performances, Home of the Dragon is at its finest when it seems like 1,000,000 bucks. What’s the purpose of getting HBO cash if you happen to don’t blow all of it on excessive large photographs of dragons?
Which leaves Rhaenyra dwelling alone with the kiddos. She is the nice dad or mum, in any case. Even Baela, Daemon’s daughter by Laena, prefers her stepmom to her father. And Rhaenyra depends on her, too. She expenses Baela with driving Moondancer — certainly one of two new dragons to share their names with characters from the My Little Pony universe — to surveil King’s Touchdown. However what does Rhaenyra take into consideration when she performs toy dragons along with her personal towheaded toddlers within the daylight? Does she fear that they received’t develop sufficiently old to assert their very own dragons? Does she think about that they may die in her struggle, or in some future struggle she will’t foresee?
Rhaenyra’s reluctance frustrates Daemon, who, by temperament, appears to belong with the impetuous Greens, although he has extra guile to make sure. For instance, it’s laborious to think about him blundering as laborious as Aegon does when, unable to search out the one royal rat-catcher who aided and abetted Blood, he decides to execute all of them, then makes use of their our bodies to brighten the fort’s exterior partitions. Their moms collect to mourn as desperately as Helaena did earlier, as closely as Rhaenyra did within the season premiere. A son for a son for a lot of extra sons…
It’s a misstep by Aegon, however Otto makes his personal when he baldly admonishes his grandson. A particular Emmy needs to be invented for Rhys Ifans, who has give you a thousand alternative ways to make his face collapse: in disbelief, in disgrace, in remorse, in disapproval. His “drained dad at wit’s finish” vitality shall be acquainted to anybody who has ever had or been a dad. Otto desires Aegon to be extra Viserys, dignified and even handed. However that is the knowledge of age and Aegon is a child; Otto can be good to point out extra forbearance himself. He all however says out loud that Alicent was incorrect when she final spoke to her late husband — that Viserys by no means meant Aegon to be king.
But king Aegon is. It was Otto that plotted hardest to make it possible for he can be. And Aegon’s getting extra comfy with the mantle and is extra eager about flexing his energy. Why take heed to moany outdated grandad when he might simply as nicely change him? This isn’t the primary time we’ve seen Ser Otto be eliminated as Hand of the King; sarcastically, the final time he fell out of favor was for advocating for Aegon’s ascension to the throne over Rhaenyra’s. Licking his wounds, he later tells Alicent he’s certain for Oldtown to reunite with Daeron, however she asks him to go to the Tyrells in Excessive Backyard as a substitute. Both journey will maintain him away for a while. With out dragons of their very own, the Hightowers, for all their Machiavellian would possibly, nonetheless journey in coach.
Eradicating Otto because the Hand may very well be thought of a shrewd transfer; he had an allegiance to an outdated approach of doing issues and a barely hid contempt for the brand new king. However what Aegon does subsequent is bound to plunge the dominion into destroy. Ser Criston Cole — the king’s mom’s ineffective boyfriend — begins the episode because the Lord Commander who slept via the inheritor’s assassination and ends it because the Hand of the King. I’ve by no means seen somebody fail up to now upward. He earns it, partly, by sending Ser Arryk to Dragonstone to pose as Ser Erryk to kill Rhaenyra — a scheme that appears extra like a Punk’d episode than an act of crafty. Arryk is aware of it’s a suicide mission, but it surely’s suicide to defy the order, too.
Loyalty and absolution are the large concepts the present is trafficking this week. However the episode does spare a couple of minutes to atone for some subplots. On Driftmark, Alyn, the vaguely nameless sailor who was given a reputation final week, is now given a vaguely adoring brother named Addam. Watch this area! In King’s Touchdown, we’re given heartbreaking proof that Black’s blockade is working. The blacksmith that Aegon agreed to pay in “A Son for a Son” nonetheless hasn’t seen any coin from the crown; his daughter is sick and his spouse says persons are stockpiling what meals remains to be obtainable on the market.
And on Dragonstone, Rhaenyra meets with Mysaria, each girls who know one thing of being deserted by Daemon. Finally, the Black Queen offers the White Worm the liberty she was promised for serving to Daemon infiltrate the Pink Preserve. It’s gracious of her, certain. However given the tenuous state of her royal declare, I can’t assist feeling Rhaenyra’s spending an excessive amount of time smoothing issues over along with her estranged husband’s ex-lover, although, after all, she shortly comes to learn from her personal mercy.
Mysaria is headed to board a ship for Myr when she sees Ser Arryk strolling up from the docks. Having simply left the queen, attended by Erryk, she instantly understands what’s afoot. Shockingly, if it wasn’t for Mysaria, it truly did look like Criston’s Mother or father Lure caliber scheming might have labored. Arryk breezes into Dragonstone like he owns the place. For a couple of tense minutes, the twins each stroll the fort halls beneath menace of discovery, however Arryk breaches Rhaenyra’s bedchambers. Presumably tipped off by Mysaria, Erryk meets him there to save lots of the queen’s life. (The choreography right here is so bizarrely slipshod that I half-expected Ashton to point out up and let everybody know in regards to the hidden cameras.)
The brothers draw swords and combat. A lot quicker than Rhaenyra, who’s struggling from stress-induced insomnia, I instantly misplaced any sense of which Cargyll was which. And what’s there to say, actually? The twins assault one another till Erryk will get the higher hand and kills his personal kin. “We have been born collectively,” Erryk reminded his brother in battle. Now, he received’t see them parted once more. He makes a fast apology to Rhaenyra earlier than falling on his personal sword.
So far as duels go, this one was particularly tragic and unremarkable. Either side have proved they’ll penetrate the opposite’s fort partitions. Then, a son for a son; now, a guard for a guard, a brother for a brother. It’s a draw actually. There aren’t any winners. However as a proxy skirmish, the Battle of the Cargylls will maybe show telling. Aegon’s champion runs into the combat at his king’s heedless command; Rhaenyra’s soldier could be reluctant, however he can not refuse. She wins, however either side are destroyed alongside the way in which. “I don’t want to rule over a kingdom of ash and bone,” Rhaenyra mentioned final season, sounding like Viserys, extra just like the sort of king Otto and Alicent would each choose to see on the Iron Throne.
However maybe you may’t win a crown in the identical approach you’ll put on one. Rhaenyra won’t need to scorch Westeros with dragon fireplace, however her willingness to take action could also be the actual check of how a lot she desires to rule.
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