House of the Dragon S1.06 — All grown up
Spoilers below for House of the Dragon S1.06 — The Princess and the Queen
Now in the second half of the first season of Dragon, we have jumped 10 years into the future, which means some new actors, a crop of blonde and brunette children, and one very old and very decrepit king.
In the first scene, Rhaenyra gives birth to her third son, a milky white babe who definitely is not related to her husband. We realize this is a trend, since her other two sons both have dark hair and very white skin. It’s clear that their father is the head of the Gold Coats, Ser Harwin Strong of Harrenhall, son of the Hand who replaced Otto Hightower and brother of the nicknamed Lord Larys (Clubfoot in the book because he has a limp).
Alicent and Ser Cristen Cole have been in cahoots since the night of Rhaenyra and Laenor’s wedding when they banded together in hatred of Rhaenyra. It also seems that Alicent and Larys are working together as well. Of the two, Larys is a more ruthless ally and in the end of this episode, we see that he might have actually made a difference in her cause.
But let’s not rush ahead. Briefly, and I mean really briefly — it was tough to keep track of the names — we meet all of the new kids. In King’s Landing we have:
- Aegon, the oldest from Alicent & Viserys
- Aemond, Aegon’s brother who doesn’t have a dragon because his egg never hatched
- Helena, their sister who loves bugs and is clearly pretty weird
- Jacaeryus, the oldest from Rhaenyra & Laenor
- Lucerys, the middle child
- Joffrey, the infant who was just birthed in this episode
It’s clear that the boys pick on Aemond because he is dragonless, even going as far as giving him a pig instead of a dragon. He’s pissed and Alicent is too because she hates Rhaenyra’s bastard boys. For some incredibly unnecessary reason, she confronts Aegon while he is in his room jerking off out the open window. Horrified and still naked (but luckily covered), she yells at him to stop making fun of his brother and to become a better soldier. She explains that if Rhaenyra becomes the queen, she could hav Aegon and Aemond killed. He needs to shape up and take over.
In the practice yard, Aegon, Aemond, Jacaerys, and Lucerys use wooden swords with varying levels of accuracy and interest. Ser Cristen Cole is their instructor but seems to be spending more time on the blondes rather than the brunettes (for obvious reasons). Ser Harwin enters the scene and starts complaining that Rhaenyra’s kids aren’t getting enough attention. Cristen makes a snide remark that only a cousin, brother, or father would complain about something like that and the two fight. Harwin punches Cristen…a lot…and it is obviously extremely reminiscent of the last episode when Cristen murdered Joffrey, Laenor’s lover. People pull Harwin off Cristen before it can go that far, but the damage to the Strong image is done.
The Hand (Harwin’s dad) approaches the King and tells him he needs to leave his post because he can’t be unbiased anymore. When Viserys demands to know why, Alicent is practically frothing. However, to protect his family’s last remnant of dignity, he won’t give the reason. Viserys denies his request to leave his position, but allows him to return to Harrenhall with Harwin. Unfortunately, Larys cuts the tongues off of some death row inmates and sends them after his father and brother to burn down Harrenhall and kill them both. Alicent acts upset by what he did, but now her father will likely return to the position of Hand and Larys is set up to be owed a favor from the Queen.
Rhaenyra knows she is in trouble as rumors continue to swirl about the parentage of her children. In front of the small council, she offers a marriage proposal between her son (and heir) Jacaerys and Alicent’s weird bug-loving daughter. She also offers Aemond another chance at getting a dragon egg if there are eggs available. Of course, Viserys is pumped about this arrangement and says so, but Alicent is extremely displeased. Knowing that she is losing the battle, Rhaenyra decides that she and her family will move back to Dragonstone to live.
We also see that Daemon and Laena Valaryon have gotten married and are now travelers, currently hanging out in Pentos. I guess that dance flirting that they did at Rhaenyra’s wedding really paid off because they have 2 daughters and the oldest one almost seemed older than 10, which would not be impossible. And Laena is pregnant with their third child!
Their oldest daughter, Rhaena, has a dragon but the younger one, Baela, does not. Also, Laena has bonded to a dragon now, too, which is pretty cool for 5 minutes until she uses her dragon to kill herself because, like her aunt, her baby won’t come out and the only option would be a medieval C section. TG they did not make us watch that again. Now Daemon is once again wifeless, but this time with 2 children and 3 dragons in Pentos. I assume he’s about to make a grand return to Westeros next episode and really send sparks flying (get it? Because he loves his dragon?).
Until next week, you spoiled cunts!
Producer who loves TV, looking for my next opportunity to be creative & pet dogs. View all posts by lizziekreitman
Originally published at http://lizziekreitman.wordpress.com on September 26, 2022.