TV Show Talk : House of The Dragon (Season 1 - Post Major 10 Years Time Jump) WARNING : It's a long one

 Hello, everyone! Welcome back to another tv show talk on House of the Dragon. I think I've told you in the pre time jump tv show talk why I separated it in 2 parts, but I'm gonna tell you again in case I haven't, it's because my opinion on the show is different after the time jump, and here's why:

SPOILER ALERT if you haven't watched House of The Dragon and read Fire and Blood

So, 10 years had passed, Alicent had 4 children with King Viserys I, Aegon (who we've talked about briefly in the previous post), Helaena, Aemond, and Daeron (but we didn't see him in this season, and it was revealed he stayed in Oldtown, The Hightowers' ancestral seat). Nyra also already had 3 children, Jacaerys (nicknamed Jace), Lucerys (nicknamed Luke), and Joffrey in fact the first scene in episode 6, the first episode after the time jump, we saw Nyra giving birth to Joffrey. Like, I don't really get why the writers want us to watch birthing scenes, we've had 4 so far, and 3 of them didn't end well, way to create traumas, writers. Anyways, yes, I did mention that Laenor Velaryon, Nyra's husband was gay in the previous part, so all of Nyra's first three children's biological father wasn't Laenor, but Harwin Strong, the commander of the City Guard. There were some whispers throughout the Red Keep on how Nyra's children weren't actually of Velaryon blood. In fact, right after Nyra was giving birth to Joffrey, she was asked to present Joffrey to Alicent so that she could see whether Joffrey looked like Laenor or not.

These whispers and rumors on Nyra's children's legitimacy was worsened because all of her sons didn't have the Valyrian look, which is platinum white hair, they got their biological father's hair, dark brown hair. Also, Velaryons were depicted as black or at least half black in the series, so Nyra's kids being not black as well, caused some people to call them "bastards" behind their backs, including Aegon and Aemond. But, you wanna know what I think, as long as King Viserys I and Corlys Velaryon (Laenor's dad, and the head of House Velaryon) acknowledged them as Velaryons, which they did, I think it's fine, the king's words are law anyway, so if Viserys said that they're not bastards, then they're not, end of story. 

But there is someone who was still salty even after all these years, Criston Cole (who is now Alicent's sword and shield), because Nyra rejected his wishes on them running away together after Criston broke his oath of celibacy as part of the Kingsguard, so he was being hard on Jace and Luke when training them, contrary to how he treated Aegon and Aemond. He was also calling Nyra inappropriate things (the c word, not covid) that even Alicent was shocked to hear it coming out of his mouth. He also violently harassed Laenor's lover, Joffrey Lonmouth (yes, this is Joffrey's namesake), in Nyra and Laenor's wedding, because he was sad that Nyra rejected him, and he got away with it. He also had killed another highborn lord in later episodes but he still got away with it, which didn't make any sense. 

I also wanna talk on how different it is Alicent's kids acted around their parents, and how Nyra's Kids acted around their parents. Alicent's kids have definitely shown some form of trauma. Aegon grew up to be, a sex addict, hooking up with the palace handmaidens, pleasuring himself a lot (in fact we saw it, I'm a little bit traumatised), drinking a lot. Helaena was definitely seen as a "weirdo" by people around her because she played with bugs, always said things that didn't sound logical (which then revealed that she's a dreamer, basically a psychic that can see the future), but what was interesting to me was how she reacted when Alicent reached out to hold her, Helaena flinched, which showed signs of her at least being scared of Alicent. And I feel so bad that she ended up marrying Aegon (again this is Targaryens we're talking about) when it was proposed by Nyra that she could marry Jace (though Jace made her happy by dancing with her). Last but definitely not least, Aemond. I feel like he got the shorter end of the stick, because his dragon egg didn't hatch, hence why he didn't have a dragon until he was older. The fact that he didn't have a dragon, when his brother, his sister, and even his nephews who he considered bastards were born with their dragon eggs hatched, was a disgrace for him. Aegon bullied him a lot for it and hung out with Jace and Luke more, and by extension he was also mad at Jace and Luke. We're gonna talk more about Aemond later, he's a pretty interesting character.

That was very contrast with how Nyra's children grew up to be. Jace was already very honorable, and very polite at least to people around him, and I've mentioned that he's kind to Helaena, showing some good heir of Dragonstone and the Iron Throne traits. Luke, oh my boy, my sweet sweet boy. He was so sweet, always wanted to make his mother proud of him. He was everyone's baby, before Joffrey was born. He's my son event hough I didn't give birth to him. I'm pretty sure he was Nyra's favorite. It can be seen in how Nyra addressed him as "sweet boy" when Luke told him about him not being worthy to be the heir to House Velaryon. Oh, I love him, and both actors who played him. Since we're talking about it, every single younger actor here played their roles really well. They really capture the essence of their respective characters really well.

So, now we're gonna talk about everyone's favorite war committing crime uncle, Daemon Targaryen, the rogue prince himself and where he's been in the last 10 years of the time jump. Turns out, he didn't commit a lot of war crimes in the 10 years. Well, he did kill his first wife (which he hated, and the marriage wasn't consummated)  right before Nyra's wedding, but that was before the time jump, so I didn't count it. He became a married man, and a father of two daughters, shocking, I know. His wife was Laena Velaryon (Laenor's sister, again Targaryens and Valyrians in general) whom he met in Nyra and Laenor's wedding. So, for the past 10 years, they've been living in Pentos, a city in the continent Essos. But it was as if he was losing himself even though he was supposed to be a happy man in a loving family. He spent his day teaching Baela, his oldest daughter how to speak High Valyrian, he kinda abandoned Rhaena his other daughter because she didn't have a dragon, which is bad I know, but it's nothing compared to all the thing that Daemon had done. Him and his wife were flying in their dragons, Caraxes, and Laena's dragon, Vhagar, who was a war dragon, Visenya (Aegon I's sister wife)'s dragon, and Vhagar is huge, 

Like, look at that comparison of Vhagar and a human. She was the biggest and the oldest dragon alive at that time. 

With Daemon, he lost his passion in life because he liked to cause problems, and life as a married man in Pentos was boring for him and Laena noticed that, although Daemon convinced her that he was okay with all this. Forgot to mention, that Laena was pregnant too, but then she didn't survive the childbirth because the baby "won't come out", so she asked Vhagar to burn her alive because she was tired, and that scene was so sad. Daemon looking at the flames burning his wife, and he couldn't do anything about it. There was a scene in which Daemon hugged both Baela and Rhaena to calm them down after their mother's death, but the showrunners cut it, that was my first red flag and downfall of the show. Like, he is a grey character, there is good in him, why are you cutting the scenes where he showed his good sides and made him look like a one dimensional villain? 

Then we're going to my favorite episode, which is episode 7. All of the characters were in Driftmark, the ancestral seat of House Velaryon for Laena's funeral. Daemon met Nyra again after 10 years and discussed how they were living in a facade, like they think they were happy with their lives, but they weren't, and confessed that they were actually infatuated with each other, they hooked up that night in the beaches of Driftmark. Laenor was drowning in sadness. But what was interesting to look was, Aemond. Remember when I told you that Aemond didn't have a dragon. They were unclaimed dragon there, which was Vhagar. Aemond claimed Vhagar and all hell break loose. Rhaena who thought Aemond stole Vhagar because it was her mother's and hers to claim, confronted him about it with Jace and Luke tagging along. There were fights, screams, your typical children's cat fight. But Aemond was calling both Jace and Luke "Strongs", that escalated things. Until Aemond pulled out a knife to hurt them, but one thing lead to another, he lost grip of the knife and Luke was holding the knife, sliced out Aemond's left eye with that knife, and that scene, not only made Aemond wanted revenge on his lost eye to Luke, but also my favorite scene in the whole series. 

In this scene, Alicent was asking for a punishment because of Aemond's eye, but Viserys was unresponsive and didn't do anything (to be honest, he was already ill), so she took matters in her own hands, pulling out Viserys' dagger and would like to cut out Luke's eye herself. Nyra was protecting Luke and pointing out that her sons' legitimacy was challenged. This scene was soooooo good. The emotions, the chaos, the dialogues, chef's kiss. To see Nyra and Alicent who were once best friends but now were falling out. This episode felt like an actually good Game of Thrones episode and we haven't got that in a long time. 

Episode 8 was also good, it was very emotional, and there was a 6-year time jump between episode 7 and 8 and there will be no more time jumps after this episode. Nyra, Daemon and their kids (Jace, Luke, Joffrey, Rhaena, Aegon III, and Viserys II) were living in Dragonstone at the time. They were big happy family, Daemon was very excited to be a father in general and collecting Syrax's eggs. Like that scene in which Daemon collecting Syrax's newly laid eggs was very reminiscent of Matt's acting as The Doctor. He was just so excited to show that he got more eggs for his children. Nyra was pregnant with their third child together. Everything was perfect, until Baela sent a message to her father that basically the whole family needed to go back to King's Landing to support Luke's claim to be the Heir to House Velaryon because Vaemond, Corlys' brother (I know these names are so similar that it's confusing) was about to challenge it because, well, bilogically, Luke is not of Velaryon. Nyra was scared because it basically also means that her claim to the Iron Throne was also challenged. She met Viserys I who was already in his deathbed, because his illness that was revealed to be Leprosy, was already worsened. She cried because she was afraid and begging him to protect her claim because he was the one who wanted her to be heir. That scene was very touching, Emma D'arcy who played young Nyra, they are such an amazing actor. 

So, the next morning, it was the time for everyone to hear both Vaemond and Nyra's petitions over the claim for House Velaryon. Forgot to mention that Nyra was also practically begging to Rhaenys to support her claim and betrothed Baela with Jace, Rhaena with Luke. Like, most of the time we've seen Rhaenys, her answers were like a riddle but she would reveal it at the right time, and the right time was at the petition. Basically everyone already heard Vaemond's, saying that he's the last of Corlys' true blood heir, because Laenor was"dead" (Nyra planned his escape so that he can be with his boyfriend in Essos), and Luke didn't look like a Velaryon at all. Nyra was in the middle of saying her petition, when Viserys I walked into the throne room, with his walking stick when in the last 6 years, it was Otto and Alicent who sat the throne in his name. Before I go into this scene further, I'd also like to say, I LOVE Nyra's dress in this episode,

It was the best dress of the season, completely beat Alicent's thousand dresses. The coloring, the dragon scales details, the neck and collarbone area, so pretty! Like she hardly ever got a good dress in the season, but she definitely won with this one. Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program.

So, yeah Viserys I walked into the room. I almost cried, because he was, until his last days, still support Nyra's claims to the throne even though it was hard for him physically to walk and sit the throne. There's this very emotional scene, in which was completely unscripted.

In this scene, Viserys I dropped his crown accidentally, and Daemon was the one to grab it from the floor, then helped him walk to the Iron Throne, and then put Viserys' crown back onto his head. So that scene was completely improvised by Matt Smith. Because he knows that, no matter how much of a rogue prince he is, no matter how much of a dickhead he is to everyone, he will still love his family no matter what, especially his brother. Not like other certain people who cut all of his good side scenes. It's almost like Matt Smith knows how to present a morally grey character more than certain people, *judging the writers and producers intensely*. Anyways, the 3 cousins, Rhaenys, Viserys I, Daemon, all 3 of them protected Nyra and supported both her and Luke's claim. Rhaenys by saying "my husband and I supported Nyra and her intention to marry Jace and Luke to Baela and Rhaena", Viserys I by giving Vaemond a sentence to cut his tongue when he called Nyra's sons are bastards and Nyra herself a whore, and Daemon being the executioner, beheading Vaemond, making him keep nothing but his tongue. That was so sweet because Nyra was once their baby, she was also the realm's delight, so you know they will do anything to protect Nyra.

That episode was, bittersweet, especially during the dinner scene. I feel like when Viserys I saw that his family can get along, he could finally rest. But, boy oh boy, if only he knew, that the dance of the dragons was basically caused by misunderstanding. Viserys talking in his deathbed about the A Song of Ice and Fire prophecy, and what Aegon I (Aegon the Conqueror) saw in the North to Alicent, thinking it was Nyra. Alicent who thought Viserys was talking about her Aegon (Aegon II) and thought that her husband actually wanted to put him to the throne when clearly Aegon II never been to North, so I think that Alicent just heard what she wanted to hear. It was chaos because Viserys died after that, and he was reaching out to the love of his life, Aemma. 

That was the start of the chaos, because episode 9 felt like a guerilla made by Greens to put Aegon II to the throne as quick and as hidden as they could before the words reached Nyra. Rhaenys who was still in King's Landing was locked in her room and basically was blackmailed by Alicent to accept Aegon II's claim to the throne. The Lords and Ladies who supported Nyra were put in jail and killed. Aegon II himself was missing because he didn't want to be king. That episode was chaotic, truly chaotic. It was also very "snakes" of the Green to coronate Aegon II in front of the masses in the dragonpit, so that the people could hear and see that this was what Viserys wanted, when it actually wasn't. But the words managed to reach Nyra, because Rhaenys did an exit that was very season 8 of Game of Thrones, she went away from King's Landing with her dragon, Meleys, meaning she broke the walls and the floor of dragonpit, so very blockbustery. Rhaenys could've ended that debauchery right there and then, but she was like "Oh, this isn't my war to fight", girl, your grandchildren are involved in this, and it's regarding your birth House, so it's definitely her war as well. Then, she flew to Dragonstone to inform Nyra. Episode 9 was good, I mean not the best, but it's definitely traumatizing. Because we saw how Alicent doing the equivalent of selling feet pics so that she can get information. I wanna erase that scene out of my mind.

Then we go to episode 10 aka season finale. This episode was leaked, so I watched it before it was released on HBO. My, my, my, there were a lot of character assassinations (literally and figuratively) in this episode. So, this episode started with Rhaenys informing Nyra that Aegon II was king and Greens are coming for her and her children. Nyra who was pregnant, was stressed out to hear the news that made her went into labor early. The first character assassination, was of Jace's. So like I said earlier, Jace was the perfect son, he was honorable, loved his family so much. But, in this episode he was being to hard on Luke, calling him pathetic when they were sword fighting. Luke was a soft boy, he didn't like confrontations, so combats in general was hard for him. Back to Nyra, she was in a lot of pain, which brought us to what could be the next character assassination, Daemon's. She was calling out for Daemon to be in the room with her but Daemon was busy planning war for her, which I think I understand now because it could be he was traumatised of what happened to Laena in childbirth, so he didn't wanna be with her, but rather did things that was right for her. Nyra gave birth to a stillborn in the end, a baby girl she named Visenya. That's first literal character assassination.

One of my favorite scenes was when Nyra was newly coronated as queen with Viserys' crown, and Daemon announced her title, I got chills in the way Matt Smith presented that line. Also, when Nyra asked him in the battle table room with "Okay, what do we have?", then Daemon kinda gave her an overview of which houses still swore their allegiances to them, how many dragons do they have compared to Greens. It showed that if you have given Daemon the chance to be your advisor, especially in the time of the war, he will do a superb job at so, and he enjoyed doing so. He didn't want power for himself it it's his family that sat on the throne. He just wanted to see his family in powe.

Also there was this scene that mirrored episode 2 in the Dragonstone bridge, but the difference was that Otto Hightower demanded Nyra to bend the knee and let their kids be squires and cupbearers, of course Daemon was like, "hell nah". But I hated this scene so much, because Nyra was so easy to be swayed by a piece of paper that had some memories value between her and Alicent. Like, I'm sorry, Nyra. I love you, but you've been in a "fight" with Alicent for the past 16 years and you're gonna be swayed just like that? Like come on now. 

The next of what could be a figurative character assassination was of Daemon's again, but you can never be sure with him, since he's very morally grey. Still at the battle table room, he wanted Nyra to strike because they already got the support from all the houses that surrounded King's Landing, including the naval fleet from House Velaryon. But Nyra wanted to wait it out, and do it with diplomatic affairs first, by sending ravens and in the end sending her oldest sons, Jace to The Vale and North, Luke to Storm's End. She wanted to keep the realm together because of the A Song of Ice and Fire prophecy, in which she found out that Viserys never told Daemon about that. Daemon was in anger and choked Nyra, again that was somewhat out of character because he truly loved Nyra but then, he killed his first wife and abandoned his second one, so maybe it's still in his character.

The last act of the episode was, Luke going to Storm's End as his mother's messenger. This act was so sad, because first, before she assigned him as a messenger, he told Nyra that he was afraid to be the head of House Velaryon in the future because he didn't have what it took to be one. Nyra assured him and called him "sweet boy", I knew he was her favorite. Because, look at him,

He looked and acted Harwin the most, so Luke reminded Nyra of Harwin a lot. And he's just a sweet boy overall, only wanted to make his mother happy. So, when the assignment to be a messenger in Storm's End was given to him, he was afraid, but he tried not to be for his mother. Nyra could feel his fear but because Luke said that he wanted to go, he let her. The conflict in this act started, when Luke arrived in Storm's End, the ancestral seat of House Baratheon, and saw Vhagar, Aemond's dragon in front of the castle. Meaning that Aemond who held a grudge to Luke for years was there as well, and no one was gonna protect Luke. When he entered the hall, he was too late because Aemond was already there and offered a marriage pact between him and one of Lord Baratheon's daughters to secure Baratheon's alliance with Aegon II. Luke wasn't free to marry since he was already betrothed, so he only could reminded Lord Baratheon of the house's oath to Nyra when she was appointed heir.

 

Then, yeah, we can really say that House Baratheon's support wasn't gonna fall for the Blacks. Not only that Luke was about to go home with empty hands, Aemond threatened to take out Luke's eyeball as a revenge of what he did in the past. Luke just went out to Arrax, his dragon, because again, he was there to be a messenger not a warrior. As the name of the place suggests, there was a storm outside, Luke was about to ride Arrax and went home when he realized it wasn't that easy,  because Aemond was about to chase him down, with Vhagar. The thought was already terrifying, because Arrax wasn't a fully grown dragon yet. 

Again, look at that comparison. Vhagar could cover Arrax's full body. They were playing catch basically, but not really because Aemond had actual intention to hurt Luke, so that made Luke scared. Arrax, who could feel his rider's emotion, tried to protect Luke by firing Vhagar for a small amount, compared to her body that was. Of course, as an ancient war dragon, that attack provoked Vhagar to hurt Luke and Arrax even more. But Luke was telling Arrax to calm down, their goal at the time was to go home safely. Then we were brought into the skies above all the storms, Luke and Arrax could run away from Aemond and Vhagar, when it was actually the calm before the storm, because after that,

Vhagar ate them up, and it was an accident because Aemond couldn't control his dragon. The Dance of Dragons, was started because of an accident. Aemond was seen troubled but I feel like it wasn't because Vhagar, by extension Aemond himself, just killed his nephew and the dragon, he could care less about that, he wanted to hurt Luke anyway. But he was troubled because, he just started a war and he will be called Kinslayer all throughout his life because he just killed his family. This whole sequence also showed that Targaryens or Dragon riders can control their dragons fully was just a myth and illusion. Yes, they can bond emotionally, some stronger than others, like Nyra and Syrax, also Daemon and Caraxes who can feel each other's emotions and show up when needed, like Caraxes showing up whenever Daemon was about to sentence someone. But there are others who bonded with less emotions, like Aemond and Vhagar.

Daemon, when he found out about the news, pulled Nyra aside from her small council meetings then told her in private. This scene was also improvised by Matt Smith. Like I said earlier, he knew Daemon more than the writers, because there's no way he would make Nyra looked weak by making her showing reactions in front of everyone (but I do think, crying isn't a sign of weakness). But he was holding her hand as a form of support for her, and telling her that he'll be ther whatever step she's gonna take. I'm sure an Emmy Nomination is coming his way, because his performance as Daemon is phenomenal.

Then the scene after that, was so full of emotion. There were no words, but you can see how it saddened then angered Nyra. She lost almost everything that she had in the span of 3 days, her father, her throne, two of her children. It was even worse for Luke, because not only that Nyra wasn't ready to let him go on a mission, there was no body for her to mourn. Luke's body was never found, there was only Arrax's. She was crying, holding her stomach and then breaking down, with her back to the viewers. That was pretty scary, it's like seeing a monster is born. I can't find the picture of that scene, you can check it out by yourself. But what amazing was the shot after that.

That is a look of a mother, a queen, a person who wanted nothing but fire and blood (pun intended) for everything that had happened to her. The way Emma D'arcy presented this shot, gave me chills. It was as if Nyra looking straight at Greens and showed them that she was not a force to be messed with. That Emmy Nomination is gonna come for them as well, if it's not then, they are robbed. Also with that look, I'm going to support everything, every single war crime that Nyra is about to do in season 2.

With that last shot coming to an end, I can say, I like the second half of the show less than the first half. But don't get me wrong, it's still an amzing show, but the writing did get worse at the end. There were some moments I felt was out of pocket and wasn't relevant to the story. Also, less High Valyrian here? I wanna hear more of Matt and Emma talking shit about everyone in High Valyrian, but we didn't get that. I want Baela and Rhaena to be more involved as well in the story, at least show that they still have somewhat of a relationship with their father and I wanna see how Baela and Jace's relationship evolved as well, like some cute, innocent first love in this dark and dangerous world. Is this my excuse in seeing Harry Collett, Jace's actor, acting like a loving and caring man? Maybe. But I just would like to see it. 

The wardrobe department, again, is still disappointing. I'm pretty sure that they're Greens now. How is it, Alicent got a whole set of wardrobe in one episode, with time span less than 2 days, but Nyra had to wear the same dress for 2 episodes? I wanna see the spirit in making Alicent's 50 shades of green dresses, in the effort of making at least 2 different dresses for Nyra. 

Since we're talking about Alicent, I'm gonna give some applause for Olivia Cooke, the actor who plays Alicent, for her acting. Olivia seems like a cool person to hangout with, very progressive, yet she managed to play a role of a woman who supported patriarchy and just everything that Olivia is not. She also showed disdain for Alicent and her children, which is, great for her. From her acting, we can see that Alicent was very conflicted, like she showed everyone that she wanted to live free of men's influence in her life, when in actuality, she actually supported that. She succeeded in making me hate Alicent, basically, and that's a superb job.

With that, I'm gonna wrap up this long tv show talk, I'm gonna be Team Black and support everything that Nyra is about to do in season 2. I can't wait to go back to The North and see what the ancestor of House Stark is up to in season 2. So see you on the next post!