Taste Like Crab, Talk Like People — House of the Dragon Episode Two

Episode Two of House of the Dragon. More spoilers.

Here we are at the second episode of the first season of House of the Dragon, or Hot D as some people are calling it. This episode continued the excellent start the show had from last week and only managed to remind me of the Game of Thrones series just once. Admittedly it was in the intro where, although they have a wonderful new opening animation similar to the one in Game of Thrones but more appropriate to the story, they are using the exact same intro song. I was kind of disappointed as the composer, Ramin Djawadi, has an excellent history of wonderful openings and I thought we would get something brand new. But, the song is still good and is a bit weirdly nostalgic for the times of catching the new episode of Game of Thrones so it does its job, I guess.

So let’s go through the episode. After the new intro sequence with the same music, we have some dead or dying people being slowly eaten by crabs with some fantastic imagery until we cut to a small council room where Corlys Velaryon bursts in as they discuss the recent death of the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. Rhaenyra’s personal guard Ser Harold Westerling becomes the new Lord Commander so they need to find a replacement for him as Rhaenyra’s personal guard. Corlys burst in to tell the small council of more of the Crab Feeder’s horrific attacks. The council does not wish to intervene much as open war with the free cities is considered a terrible thing to trifle with. There is brief mention of Daemon taking seat at Dragonstone before Viserys claims he has sent envoys to try and resolve the matter in a peaceful way but Rhaenyra interjects and claims that dragonriders like her and the others might be a better option. We again come to the theme of equality and of succession. It’s a move that is risky but anyone else saying it might be heralded as a great thinker but because of Rhaenyra’s gender she is put aside and told to leave to help choose the next member to join the Kingsguard. Rhaenyra, although chosen as heir, is still treated as a small child and her opinions aren’t even considered because she is a woman. Although it continues the already hammered theme, its main role in this episode is more to build and build upon Rhaenyra’s confidence in her own instincts in politics and conflicts. We see this later at Dragonstone, but it’s a nice opening character moment for her and what she ends up doing later. They also have Corlys enjoy and praise her interjection which slowly builds up the relationships and tensions between characters for when they inevitably have to choose sides.

Then we go to Rhaenyra being shown the main candidates to fill the role of her protector in the Kingsguard. A variety of candidates are shown but she ends up choosing Ser Criston Cole as he is the only one with actual experience in a real battle. Here we get a nice back and forth between Rhaenyra and Otto. The real decision is between Otto’s political choice of a house to keep as a friendly ally, whereas Rhaenyra’s choice is to be much more practical. It also hints that Rhaenyra is thinking far more ahead than Otto or, at the very least, is concerned of a war coming to them soon. Then we see Viserys in conversation with Alicent Hightower again as they slowly build their relationship. They are constantly portraying Alicent as a very nervous figure who barely can string a sentence together which is a lot more off-putting than I thought it would be after the first episode. I’ve started to enjoy Rhaenyra’s young actor a lot more than Alicent’s. The change in actors cannot come quick enough. After this, Alicent then talks and they pray together to try and help Rhaenyra with her grief. It has been about half a year since the first episode and a lot of the characters in this one are dealing with Aemma’s ghost. Whether that be through grief or political manoeuvring.

We then have a meeting between Viserys and Corlys (and his wife), where the two are battling each other whilst pretending to be pleasant. Eventually Corlys comes out with his proposal: that Viserys marry his daughter, Laena Velaryon. It would secure the realm with a possibility of a male heir once they have children and enemies of the crown might think twice about attacking Viserys. Again, this deals with the ghost of Aemma. Viserys knows deep down that he will have to marry again or he might inadvertently destroy his house. But he is still heavily grieving for Aemma and is unsure whom he should marry and whether it would be an insult to his dead wife. After a small scene that emphasises the disregard people, including her father, have for Rhaenyra’s ideas, we come to a scene where Viserys’ finger, likely the one he cut on the Iron Throne when he cast out Daemon, is rotting away and the Grand Maester applies maggots to eat away the dead flesh — which gives a wonderful contrast to the Crab Feeder who is hinted at and acts as another type of ghost throughout this episode. Viserys discusses his conversation with Corlys and Rhaenys and although the Grand Maester is quick to agree that the idea is good, Otto takes some time but eventually agrees that it would be a good match. Viserys then meets with his potential bride of Laena but it is quickly evident that, even for a mediaeval show where child brides are far more common in royalty, the relationship would be bizarre and a lot more forced whereas it is quite likely he married Aemma because they got on so well, even if they are family. Viserys, although he can’t have Aemma, is still looking for someone like her to fill the void in his heart. There is also another scene, this time in between Rhaenyra and Rhaenys where they talk more about the idea that no one would listen to Rhaenyra and about Viserys and Rhaenyra’s acceptance that the former will have to marry again. Again another brief scene where they continue to build the friendship, on-screen, between Viserys and Alicent before the main event of the episode begins.

Viserys is called to a small council meeting where a representative of the dragon pits explains that someone has stolen a dragon egg from them. The first thing to note here is that I am loving the large use of Valyrian in the show. It would make sense that a number of occasions would be spent speaking the language and the show could have easily shone away from it in order to ease the watcher into the show and spend less time teaching the actors how to speak the language. But everyone does a great job and it flows nicely when they go in and out of the language and the Common Tongue. The dragon pit leader claims it was Daemon who took the dragon egg and left a missive to be read to Viserys. Daemon claims he is to marry to a second wife and that she is with child and therefore he took the egg to put in the baby’s cradle after birth which is a tradition. In actuality, this is simply Daemon making political moves. In an episode called ‘The Rogue Prince’, I was surprised not to see Daemon earlier in the episode but his manoeuvrings proved to be a great setup and led to this nice scene without him even being present. He requests that Viserys turn up to his wedding but Viserys instead plans to go and demand he give back Dragonstone and the egg. Otto intervenes and says he will go as it is too dangerous for the King to do such a thing. If this were any other strong King, he would have gone himself but this cave into his Hand shows more and more of Viserys’ timid and unfit nature to sit on the Iron Throne. Before leaving, Otto makes sure Alicent is there for the King, and then sets off in armour with a couple of the Kingsguard with him.

He meets Daemon along with his future wife and a number of Gold Cloaks on the bridge towards the main keep on Dragonstone. It’s another instance of what we saw similarly in the first episode of Otto and Daemon clashing against each other. Daemon appears with the dragon egg, appearing to taunt what he hoped would be his brother, the King, but Otto demands Daemon leave Dragonstone and return the dragon egg. It all starts to escalate as Daemon has absolutely zero respect for Otto and swords are drawn until Rhaenyra comes riding in on her dragon’s back. She comes through the King’s representatives and convinces Daemon to stop what he is doing. He gives back the dragon egg but goes back into Dragonstone. It’s another wonderful scene between Daemon and Rhaenyra and it shows Daemon’s weakness for her which Rhaenyra exploits brilliantly. Daemon’s wife to be argues with him and refuses to do the things she sees as being a slave again like baring children. It’s a great way of showing that really Daemon needs to stop doing things the way people expect royalty to do things and carve his own path. To stop playing politics and do what he is good at.

Viserys is again counselled, at his request, as to whether the marriage between him and Laena would be a good idea. His Master of Laws agrees and advises that he should probably do it. It’s another scene of showing Viserys’ incompetence and indecision as King. Rhaenyra returns at Viserys’ anger since he never knew she left in the first place and the two come to an understanding and share their grief with each other about Aemma. Viserys realises that he has forgotten that Rhaenyra is not a child anymore. They finally agree that Viserys has to remarry, or let the seven kingdoms go to ruin. The next day, he announces that he is to remarry. But to nearly everyone’s surprise, Viserys is to remarry to Alicent Hightower instead of Laena. A smirk can be seen from Otto, so it is likely that they talked the previous night or in the morning and made an arrangement. It’s a great way of having a twist in the episode that makes sense and doesn’t just anger the viewer. It is a perfectly understandable thing for Otto to orchestrate and he has already planted the seeds to likely manipulate Viserys into choosing his daughter. This angers both Corlys and Rhaenyra, where the latter is likely going to lose a close friend for her to become Rhaenyra’s stepmother. It really hammers the point of Viserys’ incompetence where he is easily manipulated by his Hand and alienates his daughter and heir, along with an incredibly powerful lord within the seven kingdoms.

This leads to the final two scenes of the episode which are intercut with each other. Corlys has summoned Daemon to him and tasks him with the job of routing out the Crab Feeder and stopping the destruction of fishing lines and ships within the Stepstones. It’s something where, if Daemon can succeed, he can easily outshine his brother who has done little to deal with the pirates under the command of the Crab Feeder. The other scene that is intercut with this one is that of the Crab Feeder nailing a victim to wooden posts for the crabs to feed on. It’s a great teaser for them for hopefully the next episode or more. They have a fantastic, norse-style aesthetic that I would love to see as a regular appearance on the show.

Overall it was another great episode and I think, although I loved this episode, it might actually be one of the less exciting episodes of this season which is a great thing to think of as we move forward. Nothing to complain about here.

-Boad