If you thought a ten-year time jump with change of actors in major roles would take some getting used to, wait till you get whiplash from all the character turnarounds in Episode 6 of House of the Dragon — The Princess and the Queen. There are also changed allegiances, new rumours, a whole new generation of Targaryens and Velaryons, tortuous child births and two new dragons (we are up to half a dozen winged beasts, yipee!).
All hail the changed and the changing
We meet a grown-up Alicent (Olivia Cooke) who has gone from soft-hearted and just to paranoid and vicious. That she was not going to take things lying down was made clear by her Hightower ‘call to arms’ green dress last season, but it must have been quite the journey from finding her spine to being calculating and snide. It’s like she is a completely different person and not seeing the transformation makes it a bit jarring. Full marks on her burn skills though, and no, we don’t mean she has suddenly learnt to speak dragon. That aside to Laenor Velaryon about keeping on trying and maybe one of his and Rhaenyra’s children would end up looking like him was a well-timed dig.
Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) seems to have gone the other way and become weary and perpetually on the backfoot. Undone by her secret (well, not so much, evidently) trysts with the Commander of the City Watch, Ser Harwin ‘Breakbones’ Strong — and the fact that all her three children, even the newborn babe, are neither black nor blonde-haired — she is pretty much on the wrong foot in the game of thrones.
Daemon Targaryen, who seems to have taken permanent resident guest status in Pentos with wife Laena (so the wedding dance flirting seems to have paid off) and their two daughters, seems to have become placid. Gone is the conniving, smirking countenance and desire to inherit the throne. Instead he is perfectly okay with burying his brooding self in a library reading about old dragonlords and seems to need reminding of his Valyrian blood by his wife.
The other person who seems to have done a 180 is Ser Criston Cole. Forget the fact that he has clearly gone scott free after very publicly murdering another knight, and a friend of the heir’s husband, he has been promoted to being the Queen’s guard. The once admirable and honourable man is now busy calling Rhaenyra a c**t and likening her to a spider and taking out his ire by pitting Alicent’s children against Rhaenyra’s on the training ground.
The battle field of childbirth
House of the Dragon makes it clear with this episode that the game of thrones is being played out by the women, not the men, and it is being fought through their children. Are they the pawns then? Yes and no. It is also about survival. So, Alicent’s insistence on drawing attention to the fact that Rhaenyra’s children are bastards is not so much about morals but about politics. Because, if acknowledged, it would mean a blow to Rhaenyra and her children’s claim to the Iron Throne.
Rhaenyra offering up her son Jacaerys for marriage to her step-sister Helaena is a way to keep the status quo and ensure Jacaerys’ claim to the throne.
But it is not just the children but also childbirth that feels like a battle — vicious and bloody. Whether it is Rhaenyra’s long-drawn birthing process, followed by the painful afterbirth and bleeding as she treks to answer the Queen’s summons or Laena’s unsuccessful labour where the choice is to lose both mother and child or let her miscarry.
The men don’t get it
Viserys won’t listen to Alicent about Rhaenyra’s transgressions and continues to turn a blind eye, and Alison is left to do all the scheming and calculating. Laenor is too busy drinking and living it up with his current squeeze to be of any use to Rhaenyra, even talking about hightailing it to the Narrow Seas as suspicions about their children start to take on strength. Rhaenyra is forced to command him, as the heir to the throne, to stay by her side and when the time comes move to Dragonstone with her as she takes her brood out of harm’s way in King’s Landing.
Oh and Daemon needs his wife to tell him to grow a pair. It’s a sorry state of affairs for the men of Westeros.
The Gen Z of Targaryens and Velaryons
Aegon II (Ty Tennant) makes an immediate impression, being clearly more skilled and more able than the rest of his siblings and Velaryon relatives. He comes across as entitled, a bit of a brat, but also naive. Alicent has to be really forceful to get across the point that he cannot be friends with Rhaenyra’s children because she just might off him to protect her claim to the throne.
Jacaerys (Leo Hart), the eldest of Rhaenyra’s brood, is also entitled and a prankster, and though clearly a dragonrider he seems to be weaker than Aegon.
Aemond, Alicent’s youngest, is a butt of jokes of the Targaryen-Velaryon terps. He hasn’t hatched or matched a dragon yet, and is a bit of a crybaby. And Halaena is already prophesying. Remember her comment about “closing one eye” as Alicent comforts Aemond saying that he will have a dragon one day.
The dragons, they are a coming
Welcome to the show, Vermax and Vhagar! It is a nice contrast, with Jacaerys’ being a welp who can fry a lamb on command, and Laena’s the oldest dragon remaining, whose flames can engulf even Caraxes. We’ve heard the name of Sunfyre, Aegon’s dragon, but we are yet to see it, and on this show seeing is believing. The best part however is that we get a look into how dragons bond with their riders and the lores behind it. Also there is that flaming aerial flirting between Laena and Daemon, nice! Also, we wonder if there is any correlation between Aemond and his dragon troubles and Vhagar being riderless.
Burning up loose ends
Ya, well they off-ed a few characters again, and before we even cared enough for it to make an impact. While Laena’s death by fire gave her more agency, choosing to be burnt by her dragon than left to be done with as others wished, Harwin Strong and Lyonel Strong being crisped by Larys, the creepy Varys wannabe, in the name of the Queen feels like gratuitous killing. Ah well.
Lesson learnt
Larys said it. Don’t have children. They are an unnecessary attachment as well as a liability. Oh, and they make you mean. But, if they mean more dragons on the show, then please, we want the women to carry on birthing.