The Officially Unofficial Perfect House of the Dragon Season 1 Recap

So. The first season of HBO’s prequel series House of the Dragon (or as others have hashtagged, #DemDragons, #DragonsYall and my personal twist that I use, #DragonballGoT) aired its finale this past Sunday. And like most shows with enough people on social media that watch, the commentary is abundant, witty and full of different and important perspectives. The discussions matter to the interpretation of the show material.

With that said, here are some things I took away from the series’ first ten episodes and the story presented so far. I have not read any of the books and know a little about the lore through seeing perspectives in various form of conversations. So I won’t act like some major expert on a show about dragons and fantasy people. We’re entitled to our own perspectives but we are not entitled to those perspectives being three only ones that matter. I invite discourse about a show a good number of us are at least intrigued by. Here goes…

Claiming the Right to the Throne isn’t Enough

The biggest conflict between the people in House of the Dragon is who is the rightful heir to the throne. The late King Viserys decreed for his daughter, Rhaenyra, to become queen once the T-Virus takes his life. Over the course of twenty years, this has been known. But with one whispered conversation, Queen Alicent mistook the tale of the Prince The Was Promised to be about her son, Aegon. Rhaenyra and her now husband and uncle Daemon have been in Dragonstone resting on this claim. As the future series Game of Thrones showed, sitting on the truth doesn’t mean anything in a world where people are willing to fight on lies to preserve what’s theirs. This includes Rhaenyra, who openly denied who the actual father of her sons, Lucerys and Jacaerys, was in order to preserve her claim to the throne. To quote Slim Charles from The Wire, “If it’s a lie, then we fight on that lie. But we gotta fight.” I understand that Rhaenyra and (to a much lesser extent) Alicent are not trying to have unnecessary bloodshed. But in a conflict over a blood right, blood will be unnecessarily shed.

The High Tension Dialogues are Amazing

“Now, they see you as you are.” That is one of the many lines in moments of high tension and suspense that delivered. There hasn’t been as much gratuitous death to start this series. Game of Thrones was known for killing off important characters when least expected, forever changing how we view television. I think this show wanted to tell a compelling story without relying on the sick factor of death. And it has. Even with time skipping and having to accept how these characters have changed in those time skips, that does not take away from how the conversations go when things come to a head. Personally, I do not think a man of code like Ser Criston Cole would become the jerk he is over being Rhaenyra’s fling, but the show is telling me this is so. I feel the same way about how was a child, Aemond called losing his eye for Vhagar a “fair trade” but turns into a sniveling bully over that same eye on a few years. This is who the show says he is, so this is who he is.

Even the scene with Corlys Velaryon returning from near death to side with Rhaenyra carried the tension of getting the rightful queen to see that what Alicent had done was treasonous. Those are just two of a number of scenes where the words do the heavy lifting of captivating the audience.

Both Rhaenyra and Alicent Wrongly Place Their Wishes on Their Respective Sons

Before receiving the Catspaw Dagger of Aegon the Conqueror, Alicent’s son of the same name did not want to rule. Alicent kept pushing him to want to be king, but Aegon thrust himself into debauchery as a means to avoid it. Aegon questioned why Viserys would change his mind after 20 years of standing and fighting on Rhaenyra’s behalf because he knew the throne wasn’t where he was supposed to be. Alicent, and Otto, orchestrating a path to the throne is all for their vicarious ambitions and not Aego’s wishes.

In a similar way, Rhaenyra sent her sons on messenger missions to secure alliances because that’s what her 15-year-old self would have done—with or without permission. While Jacaerys appears to be better equipped to defend himself, Lucerys had been more of the, uh, studious type. Rhaenyra had to give the pep talk to him to build up the confidence to live up to something he’d be inheriting. In short, Lucerys wasn’t built for that mission and it was evident before he didn’t realize to turn around when he saw Vhagar the dragon in the clouds. As much as Lucerys was a victim of bullying, that mission wasn’t going to end well for him, even if it didn’t end in a dragon’s mouth. He had no experience in talking to
nobleman, Rhaenyra sent him with a quote and a dream, and he ain’t a good fighter if things go left. Arrax was the smallest dragon in the realm. And while dragons are indeed intimidating, that mission needed a bigger one. No, they could not have known Aemond would be there, but that goes back to my point about being willing to fight on the lie. Not wanting to draw the first blood in war doesn’t mean that there aren’t better preparations and strategies to be made. Queens and mothers have to better know their sons, and both Rhae and Alicent were blinded by vicarious ambition.

With All Them Kids, Somebody Was Bound to Go

Ok look. Maybe this is that desensitization I mentioned earlier due to Game of Thrones killing characters off all willy nilly, but once all those children were on screen for multiple episodes, I knew at least one of them wasn’t gonna make it through the season. Episode 10 had a scene in the beginning where there’s an emotional, uplifting conversation between Rhaenyra and Lucerys. It’s a very common trope that can key observant viewers into someone’s oncoming demise. Aside from Aemond looking Lucerys needing to happen to push Rhaenyra to vengeance, the bullying on dragonback was only going to end one of two ways—Lucerys escaping or being Vhagar’s snack. This is the Thronesverse. The only people to make it out of impossible situations are JonAegon Snowgaryen and the crew. Lucerys was not protected by plot armor, thus making him more of a candidate to fuel the Dance of Dragons.

There are plenty more things to touch on and I’d love to discuss them in the comments section. May season 2 come swifty and improve upon what’s been a really solid look into the events before what we know as the Game of Thrones.