Rhaenyra Targaryen Struggles

Rhaenyra Targaryen and the Cracking Foundation of Power

It is one thing to inherit a throne. It is quite another to rule from it. Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) holds a stronger claim to the Iron Throne of Westeros than her rival half brother Aegon, and she is the better human being, not that this is a high bar to clear. Yet, as Sean T. The Iron Throne is becoming less and less comfortable for poor Rhaenyra, and she even cuts her hand on the Iron Throne, as if the symbols of power themselves are rejecting her.

The administrative failures pile up quickly. After her decision to leave the gold cloaks unpaid, they begin resigning their posts en masse to find work elsewhere. Meanwhile, the funds she redirected from the City Watch to the small folk have run dry. Now her people are both starving and defenseless against banditry in the city streets, with some becoming enemy agents out of sheer refusal to bend the knee to this woman, or possibly any woman. Rhaenyra storms out in the middle of hearing their petitions, giving the impression that she simply doesn’t care.

Daemon Targaryen and Escalating Conflict in the Realm

Inside Rhaenyra’s small council, members continue to bicker among themselves, most recently over Daemon’s demand that they burn the loyal city of Tumbleton in order to punish its occupant Lord Ormund for the killings he is funding inside King’s Landing. Rhaenyra overrules Daemon and puts him in charge of the City Watch, which disintegrates immediately — a direct hit on the Rogue Prince’s public image.

When Rhaenyra’s entreaties to the powerful House Baratheon lead nowhere, she takes their ambassadors’ clothing, dresses assassins in it, and sends them to take out Ormund under false pretenses. The assassination fails when Ser Gwayne, still exhausted from his ordeal in the Riverlands, realizes what’s happening and leaps into action. Ormund retaliates by sending a squad of his own to take out Lord Corlys Velaryon. Corlys had been getting his hands dirty, stringing up the corpses of enemy pirates to hang from the trees in the episode’s eeriest visual.

Boardroom Politics Across Westeros

The wider political chess board involves deep-rooted tensions across multiple factions and regions, echoing the historical document source material, George R.R. Martin’s Fire and Blood. House of the Dragon airs on Sky Atlantic and NOW, offering a window into a world almost 200 years before Game of Thrones starts and the rise of Daenerys Targaryen.

At that familiar, 10,000 ft high wall, Rhaenyra’s eldest son Jacaerys (Harry Collett) is learning the ways of the North and trying to shore up support from the Starks. Reformed-ish bad boy Daemon (Matt Smith) is determined to kill Vhaegar, Aemond’s (Ewan Mitchell) hulking dragon, to avenge his wife. Rhaenyra meanwhile is grieving on the shores, searching for signs of Luke (Elliot Grihault). Rhaenys (Eve Best) is patrolling the seas. At King’s Landing, Alicent’s (Olivia Cooke) children are as we left them: brattish king Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) is making impulsive decisions, his disconcerting wife (and sister) Helaena (Phia Saban) is ominously warning everyone about “rats”, and Aemond is scheming with Rhaenyra’s ex, Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel). Cole is also sleeping with Alicent, who is growing more miserable by the day. Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) continues to skulk about the castle, knowing everything about everyone, and paying particular attention to Alicent.

At his small council meeting, Aegon plots an offensive against Rhaenyra and the blockade she has imposed on King’s Landing. The young king’s approach is typically short-sighted, while his mother and her father, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), favour a more considered approach. As viewers and readers of Fire and Blood know, endless plotting and dangerous secrets — including low-level assassins nicknamed Blood and Cheese instructed by Daemon to murder Aemond — loom large over the rest of the season.