House of the Dragon: Episode Ten
or, so it comes to this
Catch up:
Well, since I spent the last essay talking primarily about the differences between Alicent and Rhaenyra as mothers, I sort of don’t have much to say on this episode, which just further drives the point home.
Episodes Nine and Ten are very much sister episodes, in that they overlap in time and theme. Where Alicent is scheming how to begin take power for Aegon, Rhaenyra spends most of the episode trying to postpone the war Alicent seems to be inviting.
Alicent who rarely shares screantime with her sons. Rhaenyra whose life is deeply entwined with her sons. This is the foundational engine that’ll be driving the rest of the series, I imagine.
So let’s talk about Lucerys.
When Jacaerys tells Rhaenyra to let them go to Winterfell and Storm’s End, I voiced my trepidation to my wife. Something along the lines of that showing bravery. Not her boys, but Rhaenyra, to let them go. She trusts them and must let them become who they must become if they are to stand as her heirs.
In that moment, I honestly didn’t expect anything bad to happen.
I was, to put it in a certain light, rather let down by the simmering nature of Episodes Nine and Ten. After the absolute masterpiece that was Episode Eight, it was impossible for what followed to live up to it. But I expected maybe more, um, fire and blood. But by pushing the beginning of the civil war to the next season, they’ve probably made the correct choice.
And I was resigned to that. Let the season end with chess pieces being moved this way and that.
Like everyone watching, as soon as I saw that big ol dragon at Storm’s End, my heart did what Lucerys’ heart probably did: fell through the floor.
This sweet little boy with his mop of dark hair. He does his duty, even though he knows his uncle has beat him there. The uncle whose eye he stabbed when they were children.
He did it to protect his brother. Did it out of fear and desperation. He saw his uncle willing to kill, to inflict serious violence on him, his brother, and his cousins. His uncle who stole his great aunt’s dragon.
Aemond, who has prepared his whole life for the throne, who has turned his body and mind into a weapon, sees only blood and fire when he sees his nephew. The nephew who stole his eye. The nephew who wronged him so deeply. So permanently.
When he insults Lucerys, we’re not surprised. He wants to provoke this teenager into reckless action.
When he demands his eye, things change quite a bit. Even the Baratheon (so expertly cast to look just like Robert from Game of Thrones) sees how the mood has shifted and the violence looming. We all see, in that moment, that Aemond is serious. Dead serious.
He will consider the price paid when Lucerys loses his own eye.
Lucerys, thankfully, has the composure to withdraw.
And so to dragons it goes.
The young dragon versus the oldest dragon in the world.
And so disaster comes, but not how Aemond wanted. We see that clearly. And I think it’s a clever thing to demonstrate, even if no other character will ever know that this was not what he wanted or planned.
But controlling a dragon is, well…if you’ve ever been to a dog park, you may have an idea of how difficult it can be, at times, to control even a small beast who loves you more than life itself.
Imagine controlling one the size of an airplane.
It is a horrifyingly brilliant way to begin this civil war. Rhaenyra has spent the episode refusing to wage war, but how could she possibly do anything else, now that Alicent’s son has had his dragon eat her son?
Once again, this comes back to motherhood, as it always does.
Lucerys who obeys and Aemond who is like a jackal let loose.
A mother who was there, loving and involved, and the mother who gave them distance and coldness. Even when Aemond’s ruined face was being stitched back, Alicent could only think of vengeance rather than comfort.
And so we see the vengeance burning always in Aemond when he sees Lucerys.
So it goes.
This familial tragedy.
Very excited for next season, though can’t believe it’ll be at least eighteen months. Or, I mean, I can believe it. I just wish it was coming in three months instead.
I’m unlikely to do these weekly recaps of the show going forward. I’ve enjoyed doing this, as I’ve enjoyed doing the reread of A Song of Ice and Fire, but writing about a new episode every week sort of locks me into a rhythm and a narrow topic. Not that that’s a bad thing, but I sort of enjoy just writing about whatever comes to me.
Though, who knows. By the time the next season comes out, I may find myself compelled to write it all down.
Stray observations:
The writers and directors have a very unpleasant view of pregnancy. This could be a whole essay by itself, but maybe I’ll leave that to someone who has a uterus.
Daemon and Rhaenyra have always had an explosive relationship but this is the first time we’ve seen it now that they’re married. I know it seems to have sparked a bit of DISCOURSE, but I think it works well for Daemon’s character. And for Rhaenyra’s. Love is not always just one thing and it doesn’t always look one way.
Aemond’s actor is great and truly seems to understand his character. So many actors wouldn’t choose to see his point of view from the inside, but I found it very encouraging to hear him talk about Aemond in the Inside the Episode.
I’ll be reading the Targaryen history book soon and might write about it here, though I’ll try to avoid as many spoilers for the coming seasons of the show as possible.
I just got Blood and Fire in the mail so I’ll look forward to reading your view of it.
I think regarding childbirth, the show runners were fairly locked in by the plot points they had to hit from GRRM’s book. I think they did a pretty good job with what they had, but narratively I think it would have worked better without Laena’s childbirth scene, which felt the most contrived and unrealistic and contributed to a feeling of childbirth disaster overkill. I think bookending it beginning with Aemma’s helplessness in succumbing to death by the hands of the maesters and losing the baby boy, followed by ending with Rhaenyra’s refusal to let anyone touch her as she brought forth her own stillborn daughter would have been even more poignant and powerful without the Laena scene. And I like that there was a healthy birth scene thrown in the middle. All three of those birth scenes felt real to me; I have no idea if it’s true, but it felt like all of them were directed by women whereas Laena’s birth/death scene felt like it was not.
It isn't a change from the book per se to have Lucerys's death be an accident, since the book is deliberately incomplete and Aemond's intentions are never known. But it's portrayed as a more deliberate act in the book, and I think changing that was the best change they did--this entire season, everyone's been throwing rocks down the mountainside while claiming they don't want an avalanche. But eventually the ground was going to give way, and having it break via a stupid childish fight was about the most thematic way it could. Aemond is entirely too clever to deliberately kill Lucerys--he knows doing so will be war--but he's arrogant and cruel enough to think he can get away with terrifying his nephew. And you can build back a chain of events, all seemingly inconsequential, that led to this moment.
I've seen some complaints that the show is "removing agency" from characters, but I think it's unfounded. Characters might not always be making the "big" decisions, but their small decisions always make the big one inevitable. Aemond didn't choose to kill Lucerys, but he chose to chase him, he chose to frighten him and his dragon. And before: Viserys chose not to punish Lucerys at all for maiming Aemond, Lucerys and Aemond both chose to escalate the fight that ended in Aemond's eye being lost, the adults chose to pass their bad blood onto their children, and on and on. A change at any point could have averted the whole thing.