Exploring "House of the Dragon"--"The Rogue Prince" (S1, Ep. 2)
The second episode of the series continues to set the stage for the titanic conflict to come.
Well, that was quite an episode of fantasy television, wasn’t it? In the second episode of House of the Dragon, “The Rogue Prince,” the fallout from Queen Aemma’s death has begun to settle, and Viserys is feeling the pressure from his small council to marry again. Meanwhile, Rhaenyra has to contend with the fact that the men of the kingdom, including her own father, will never quite see her as the ruler she wants to be, even as her uncle, Daemon, continues to make trouble and attempt to assert his own authority on Dragonstone. And, from among the ranks of the small council, Lord Corlys Velaryon, supported by his wife Rhaenys, continues to make his own plans to obtain power, whether it’s by marrying his daughter to the king or fomenting a war on the Stepstones.
From the very beginning of the episode, it’s clear how much Rhaenyra is beginning to chafe at the limits imposed by both her father and by the men of his small council. Despite the fact that the entire realm has already sworn to uphold her claim as the heir to the Iron Throne, no one seems entirely willing to believe that this actually means anything in practice. This is particularly true of Otto Hightower, who even tries to second-guess the one decision she actually does get to make, i.e. appointing someone new to the Kingsguard. As of yet it’s unclear whether he genuinely doesn’t trust her political instincts or, as seems more likely, he wants to hold all of the power himself.
Fortunately, Rhaenyra isn’t the type of person who is going to just sit by and let the men tell her what to do, and she’s particularly disinclined to listen to anything that her father’s Hand might have to say. Not only does she appoint Ser Criston Cole over his objections, she even goes to Dragonstone to intervene and keep a confrontation between the Hand and Daemon from spiraling into terrible violence. Even this early in her political career, Rhaenyra shows that mix of political savvy and headstrong impetuousness that will come to characterize her later life and rule.
However, For me one of the most fascinating–and well-wrought–scenes was the one which took place between Rhaenys and Rhaenyra. From the moment she appeared in the first season, Princess Rhaenys has been one of the series’ most fascinating characters, a woman who has already borne the brunt of the brutal patriarchy of Westeros. As she puts it to her young cousin, the lords of the Seven Kingdoms would far rather burn their realm to the ground than let a woman sit on their beloved Iron Throne. Unlike Rhaenyra, however, who wants to fight against this fundamental injustice, Rhaenys seems far more accepting of it, to such an extent that she’s willing to go along with her husband Corlys’ attempt to marry their very young daughter to the king. Of course, book readers know that Rhaenys will sing a very different tune once Rhaenyra makes a bid for the throne and this iis, I think, a very wise storytelling move, as it gives her a lot of room to develop and grow as the series goes along.
For his part, Otto Hightower continues to scheme and manipulate events, though he keeps his cards very close to his chest. There is, I would argue, something almost Shakespearean about Rhys Ifans’ interpretation of the character (perhaps this is because Ifans played the Earl of Oxford, the supposed author of Shakespeare’s plays, in the very silly film Anonymous). With his heavy eyes, his enigmatic gaze, and his gravelly voice, he is the consummate politician, though at this point it remains unclear just what his motivations are. Does he truly care for the well-being of the kingdom, or does he see in his daughter an opportunity to seize the power he thinks should be his own? Is it, perhaps, a bit of both? It’s to the series’ credit that it doesn’t give us a clear answer to these questions right away but, instead, keeps us guessing as to what exactly his motivations are and just how far he’ll be willing to go to see them achieved.
And then there’s poor King Viserys. I can think of no better way to describe him, actually, as he seems caught in the crossfire of the various competing factions at court. You can clearly see how badly he just wants everyone to get along, whether that’s Daemon and Otto, Corlys and the rest of the small council or, as the episode reaches its conclusion, Alicent and Rhaenyra. It’s his tragedy that he simply doesn’t have the wherewithal to bring the factions into accord with one another. In caring so deeply about everyone–his brother, his daughter, his hand, his young bride-to-be–he just can’t bring himself to be the voice of authority that he needs to be, and the realm is going to suffer for it. Thu, though he seems to think his announcement that he is going to wed Alicent Hightower is some sort of assertion of his own agency, the truth is that he has not only set the stage for a titanic conflict that will tear his beloved realm apart and nearly destroy his dynasty; he has also placed himself squarely in Otto Hightower’s influence.
Last, but certainly not least, there’s Daemon. Oh, Daemon, whatever are we going to do with you? Matt Smith continues to act the hell out of this particular role, giving us dollops of the same sneering confidence and sense of grievance that made him such a searing Prince Philip in The Crown. Here, the stakes are even higher, as he makes the mistake of taking a dragon’s egg. Fortunately, his niece convinces him of the error of his ways, but it’s a close thing. It’s to Smith’s credit that he makes Daemon into something more than just a stereotype. Instead, he is as full of richness and complexity as any of the other characters. To take just one example, while he is more than happy to criticize his brother and what he views as his failures as a leader, he bristles when Corlys does the same. For Daemon, family loyalty matters more than anything else, even when he has done a great deal to destabilize his own brother’s reign.
Formally, I found this episode to be a pretty significant improvement over its predecessor. For one thing, there were far fewer dark scenes, so it was much easier to see what was actually happening (I really hope the creative team has learned some valuable lessons from the last season of Game of Thrones in that regard). Ramin Djawadi’s scoring was also on-point, and the confrontation between Daemon’s and Viserys’ forces on Dragonstone was underscored by some sinister strings. You truly got the sense that the entire kingdom was trembling on a thread at that exact moment and, while we knew that the Dance of the Dragons wasn’t about to start yet, it felt like it could. And, more to the point, though this particular crisis has been averted, the underlying tensions that have already begun to afflict the realm have not been addressed, nor are they likely to be anytime soon.
Throughout, this episode remained fixated on the maneuverings and manipulations of power. In fact, there were quite a few moving pieces and, overall, it was a bit of a slow burn, as we saw Rhaneyra and her father trying to navigate both their grief over Aemma’s death and the mounting pressures of ruling. It wasn’t until the confrontation between Daemon and Rhaenyra that things really started to heat up, and even that was more of a precursor than a setpiece in and of itself. If the confrontation between the two dragons is anything to go by, however, this is going to be a very eventual, and very bloody, affair indeed.
Even though we’re only two episodes in, it’s already abundantly clear that House of the Dragon is a very different series than Game of Thrones. It’s more tightly-focused, for one thing, and it is much more intent on fleshing out the complexities of the royal house of its title. This, I think, is all to the good, as it will help keep it from wandering about quite as much as Thrones did (particularly in its later seasons). True, there haven’t been many epic battle set pieces just yet, but one gets the feeling that those are yet to come, particularly since Daemon seems intent on giving into Corlys’ blandishments and waging war on the Stepstones. It will be quite exciting, I think, to see the dragons in action and to realize just how key they were to the Targaryen’s tight grip on the Seven Kingdoms.
Overall, I found “The Rogue Prince” to be tremendously satisfying. The inclusion of opening credits with the episode really helps us to see how the entire story is going to be one drenched in blood, both because bloodlines are so key to the plot but also because so much of it will be spilled as the royal house tears itself to shreds. Morbid as it may be, I can’t wait to watch.