House of the Dragon: Episode Four
or, hell yeah, gurl
You might think that I wait to publish these until a week has gone by because I want to respond to The Discourse.
This will never be the case. I would rather not have hands than have to write about what the keyboarded homonculi of the Culture have to say about anything.
For those of you who need to catch up:
The sexual tension between Rhaenyra and her uncle Daemon has been evident from the very first scene they shared together, when he placed that necklace round her neck. To me, it signaled that this would be a show where they really get the incest right.
And so I’ve been waiting for Rhaenyra to bang her uncle, but I never expected it to happen so quickly! Which, I guess it doesn’t. Not really. But not because Rhaenyra is unwilling.
The questions after this episode become one burning question to me:
What did Daemon want here?
We often talk about characters based on motivations. Everyone wants something in life. In fiction, we pare back much to reveal this. A lesson in screenwriting, as I’ve been told, is to structure scenes around wants. Every character wants something out of a scene and the dynamic tension of a scene are built around these competing motivations and desires.
Daemon comes back from his big victory that I expected to lead to a lot of turmoil and quickly kneels to his brother as, without begging, asks for forgiveness.
Viserys loves his brother and is excited to bring him back into his arms.
But is this what Daemon wants?
Here’s how I read all this:
Daemon is a complicated character. He certainly wants to return home—who doesn’t?—and he certainly wants the love and affection of his brother—who doesn’t?—but his primary motivation is the throne. And this leads him to Rhaenyra.
If he cannot be heir, he will take the heir as his wife.
And so he Whole New Worlds Rhaenyra into the seedy underbelly of King’s Landing. Even makes he watch a seditious play in which she is ridiculed. They have some drinks, have some fun, and then Daemon leads her to a brothel.
Here’s where the motivations become slipperier. Daemon takes Rhaenyra to a somewhat public place to have sex. As he should be aware from his speech in that same brothel that led to his disinheritance, Viserys is likely to discover whatever he does with Rhaenyra in public. But, at the same time, and as the show has demonstrated over and over, Daemon is reckless and impetuous, unlikely to consider the consequences of his actions.
And then, of course, when he pushes his niece up against the wall and she leans into him, wanting him, he loses his nerve. He wanted to shock her, to show her the depths of pleasure, but instead he flees. Leaving her horny and alone and frustrated.
And what does Daemon do?
He passes out shitfaced, housed by his former concubine. Then, upon returning to the castle, he’s treated roughly and dragged before his furious brother.
And here Daemon lies and allows Viserys to believe he and Rhaenyra fucked. Then asks for her.
Is this a final gambit or just his inability to think through consequences?
But I do take it as a reveal. This is what he wants, without artifice or subterfuge. He wants Rhaenyra, not because he has any specific love for her, but because she’s young and beautiful and heir to the throne. A throne that he will help her hold, because who would stand against him?
But, if this is what he wants, why does he go about it in the worst manner possible?
I think part of this is that Daemon simply cannot help but be the worst version of himself. We have all known people like this, who compulsively put their worst foot forward at every possible occasion.
But I like this complexity. Daemon has a plan and he knows how to pull it off, but he is simply incapable. We see this even in the war he and Corlys waged against the crabmen. Corlys’ son and brother place the blame of the quagmire directly on Daemon’s shoulders. And while we don’t know the particulars, we also have no trouble buying this.
I mean, the plan there was simple. We have dragons. They don’t. Let’s burn them out. Three years later, their success only came through recklessly bold action by Daemon who did not realize his vanity was being used as a wrecking ball in Laenor’s battle strategy.
Though Daemon has power and a clear understanding of what needs to be done, he just can’t get out of his own way.
And so in a single episode, he shrugs off all the glory he claimed in the war with the crabmen and finds himself banished once more from the seat of power.
Rhaenyra is in a more interesting position here. Like Jasmine from Aladdin, she’s been sheltered from her own people. She has bought into the notions of her own blood: Targaryen’s are more than other people, for they are dragons. And what is a human to a dragon?
Daemon opens something inside her and with this sexual frustration, she throws it into her handsome knight, Ser Criston Cole (predicted this last week! Though I didn’t expect it to happen in the very next episode).
This is, of course, the subtle gender inversion of how we typically see these kinds of narratives. Women are often used purely as plot motivations for the male heroes, and so House of the Dragon quietly does this for Rhaenyra. Daemon, to Rhaenyra, was never a love interest. Just a momentary flair of fun, but her brave and beautiful knight? Well, nothing serious can happen there, but she can get what she wants from him.
The show is careful this way. Rather than be a character who the plot happens to, they continually put her behind the wheel and let her drive. We see it when she flew her dragon to Dragonstone to squash Daemon’s petty little rebellion of spite. We see it in her refusal to accept a suitor and in her naming her own knight, the aforementioned beautiful lad, Criston Cole.
By the end of the episode, though, Rhaenyra’s future husband is named and thrust upon her. Laenor Velaryon, son to Corlys and the Queen Who Was Not. Binding back the Velarian houses to ensure Rhaenyra’s claim on the throne.
Viserys, in this episode, does actually act in quite the kingly manner! He chooses Rhaenyra’s husband, forgives and then banishes his troublesome brother, tosses out his conniving Hand (though this decision actually comes from Rhaenyra, but still)! The man’s on fire.
And his health deteriorates. I am a bit bummed how his relationship with Alicent has turned. It seems at odds with his personality, but what’s a TV show without a hundred different kinds of tensions?
And how much of the tension between them comes from Otto’s plotting on behalf of his grandson and against Viserys’ daughter?