House of the Dragon - Episode 3 Season 1 | a Review
originally published on 21/09/2022;
Hello everyone, I am the well-fed crab, G.E.M.Simov, very crabbily-crab-crabbed, here to tell you all about the Third Episode of the First Season of the serial film: “House of the Dragon”.
Simple review details - I try to rank films on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it. Due to the fact that this is a fundamentally unfinished work, both from a perspective of a beginning and an ending, I will have to slightly change up my criteria, and follow up the collection of episodic reviews with a review for the season, collectively, in which I will be able to present everything that needs to be said in as complete a manner as possible.
In addition, as a disclaimer, I might refer to this episode as ‘the movie’ or ‘the film’ (used interchangeably), by merit of the fact that it is an hour long. As a secondary disclaimer, I will abstract myself wholly from the idea of having read “A Song of Ice and Fire”, as well as the idea of having watched “Game of Thrones”, and will attempt to view and judge this based on its own merits, as its own thing.
Presentation
So, here we are for the third episode. Third time’s the charm, right? Well, unfortunately, the start is as wobbly as the previous installment in the series - owed up to the intro, which I will not dig into, not this time.
Thus, we ought to head to Music and Sound Effects, should we not? Music-wise, this is nothing out of what’s by now been established as the ordinary for the show in question. It is passable, decent, even, but not too good, based on the fact that the film likes using the main Game of Thrones theme. There is another slight issue that I’m starting to run into, and that’s the audibility of one of the tracks.
Perhaps it isn’t how loud it is, but how quiet everything tends to go whenever the track in question is played. I am, of course, speaking about the low drums in combination with high vocals going “Ha-ha-Haá”, which plays whenever something impactful or emotional has occurred in relation to the princess, whose name is still too much of an eyesore to bother with. Rhaenyra’s theme, as I’m going to call it, is not a bad track. In fact, the first time I heard it I was willing to call it good.
However, the more I hear it, the more bothersome it becomes, because it feels as though it winds up showing itself in moments that I’d describe as inappropriate, moments which do not truly transition from one scene to another, but rather continue the scene - so it feels, at least. In addition, it’s… It’s got that unpleasantly simple, catchy factor that makes it stick to your brain.
SFX were on point, as usual.
Now, onto the real stuff. I must admit that this episode had me far more intrigued by the choices it made than previous episodes. Some of that intrigue came about as a result of really, really good and effective choices, but another bit of it came about as a result of the opposite. I’d like to start off with the good stuff, mainly what occurs during the hunt. Not only is the set composition incredible, when it comes to creating a required visual effect, but it is also very impressive when it comes to the conveyance of the character’s mental state and social standing.
The King is, of course, the King. He is so great and unique that he can not simply sit with others, and so he is isolated on his seat (the Throne). To speak to the King, one needs to approach and do so in a fashion that fails to provide any privacy. Whenever he speaks to another, everyone’s eyes are trained on him and they know that he speaks.
Not only that, but he needs to speak in whispers if he wants to attain a measure of privacy, yet the conversations that wind up presenting themselves are so emotionally charged that things get out of hand, voices are raised, and all of court comes to know the discussion.
That is very visually interesting and impressively potent. The King is isolated. He is not seen as a person, and he, himself, believes that a King can not be a person, but rather a statue of ideals and morals that upholds tradition and duty, as they are paramount to Kingship. However, no man (as in human) can wield that weight.
In addition to that, the sequence shown to the audience of the King wallowing in that isolation, the uncomfortable close-ups, the emphasis on the sounds of drinking, breathing, smacking of lips, in conjunction with the unnerving musical choice, is very good. It does just that, it errs the viewer, making them uncomfortable, introducing a mounting sense of tension, maybe even dread.
Scenes like that suggest that something will go wrong, but can they, themselves, not be the presentation of things going wrong? In any case, I quite liked it. It was very, very good, very touching (in the most inappropriate places) and very enjoyable (in the weirdest way possible). I must note that this could have easily been a discussion for the Story section of the review, even if it is incredibly tightly bound to the Presentation of the film itself. Thus, there’ll be more in the aforementioned section, but it had to be praised here.
Then there’s a very… Stinky scene, I’d like to call it. The audience is treated to a jump-scare (boar induced) done exactly as a jump-scare gets done. Music teeters off, leaving a dead silence, everything is dark and happening very, very slowly, so that the sudden jerk of the ‘scary monster’ (boar), coupled with the loud and sudden pang of the music can startle the viewer.
Textbook jump-scare, textbook bad. Fortunately, it’s nothing too major and it’s so well telegraphed the viewer has plenty of time to lower the audio or remove their headphones to avoid the natural response to these things, as people tend to listen to stuff at volumes far higher than they really need to be.
Let’s shake things up by having a good thing after the bad thing. The fact that Viserys has lost two whole fingers - they’ve rotted off - is not pushed into the audience’s face. There is no shot that lingers on his hand and his hand alone, showing the viewer that - hey, that little thread from the first episode? It’s still going, and the metaphor is super strong (Story related, I know, but it is in need of being mentioned). This seems to be a display of prowess on behalf of the screenwriters, though.
The pricking in the first episode, the vastly overshadowed scene in the second, and now this totally unmentioned unraveling of things. Very, very interesting, and I’m more than willing to bet that a lesser, quality-wise, show would have dedicated a scene, not just a shot, to the state of the King’s left hand. I liked this a lot, especially the fact that it’s so unimportant - it just is. That’s good.
With that, let’s get on to something bad - again. Well, maybe it isn’t bad, per-se, but it isn’t good, either. There’s a very weird scene which withholds far, far too much information from the viewer. So much so, in fact, that the conclusions made by the viewer could easily be very misled.
It starts off with the incredible: “character facing someone else but apparently (I suppose, mayhaps I was wrong) talking to another character, without naming said character, so that the audience has no idea” meme. The whole thing was so, so wooden that I found myself quite shocked. How could this be?
Then that was coupled with a vast number of shots showing nameless soldiers and, perhaps, conveying something to the audience, but what it was that was being conveyed… That’s a big question. Earlier into the show there has been mention of these soldiers, and their disposition towards the situation, but the expressions these extras bore on their faces and their motions did not convey what was fabled.
The whole thing was very wonky. Very, very wonky - and quite wobbly, too, but it somehow worked. If there was a bit of extra clarity, it would have been far better. If the character making his statement was facing the individual he was talking to, and was maybe slightly focused on, rather than being a blurry, distant mess, then it would’ve been far, far clearer and more coherent.
Instead, I suppose this was all done as a means of whipping out a very nasty fake-out. A fake-out the likes of which I was not pleased with at all, because it was either based on incredible stupidity OR something that was purposefully being withheld from the audience. Of course, it was the latter, as the characters could be impulsive and reckless, but they’re not totally dumb.
Not only that, but the musical accompaniment for the scene is also very strange. It builds up a picture that is not reflective of what is actually going on, it misleads the audience terribly, when in this case more clarity would have been good. I suppose more light will be thrown onto that in the Story section, but the scene itself is very wobbly.
Then, and I’ll count that as a ‘lastly’, there’s the big fight. The big fight is, as one can expect, very… Well, okay. It’s okay. It could have been better - more coherency, longer shots - but I suppose that’s to be expected. There was lots of shaky cam to showcase just how intense the scene was - because the audience can’t tell if a scene is intense without shaky cam, especially if it’s a fight - there was a lot of ‘hurr durr look at this positional continuity’, with a source of danger being constantly showcased as situated to the left, yet the characters get crumped by that same source of danger coming in from the right…
Lots of skips - not just cuts, skips, jumping over moments of the characters doing something and transitioning to the characters being in the middle of doing something else, without there being an actual transition from one action to another. That’s really unpleasant, because it cuts up the scene and takes away from the excitement, from the intensity - even more-so because of the fact that there’s a lack of information.
There are enemies who come from… Somewhere, but they only show up when the character is locked in battle. When that is not the case, however, there are no enemies anywhere in sight, which is weird beyond description. An especially problematic thing is that enemies appear out of nowhere as a result of that. There’s no continuity - again - of a shot showing enemies coming out of somewhere and charging the characters, fighting the characters and being replaced. There are some such shots, but they take place after enemies have started coming, which is very confusing. Did the first goons just appear in a puff of smoke?
With those complaints in relation to the fight, there’s one last, very stupid thing. Maybe two. The way lord Corlys holds his battle-axe/short halberd, as well as the fact that the big fuck-off dragon is totally unseen until everything is perfectly set-up for the big fuck-off dragon to swoop in and do the deed. Quite silly.
Overall… 2/3
Acting
This is the first episode that has me a little torn. On the one hand, Paddy Considine did a fantastic job. Absolutely stupendous work - from my limited field of experience. On the other, there were some wobbles, mainly to be found in the realm of the Sea Snake. His eldest son and his brother seemed… They seemed off.
His son, especially, had something that I couldn’t put my finger on, but I wouldn’t call it good fortune. He had a few good lines, but their delivery seemed wrong. When the lad in question was yelling ‘the thing’, I was kinda cringing, so that’s a problem. In fact, now that I think about it, every time that ‘thing’ in question is yelled, I cringe, so maybe that’s a Presentation problem, as in it’s bad by default. Hmm…
Regardless, the Sea Snake’s brother was not that bad, but then he did the worst move imaginable by not looking at the person he was talking to and speaking in a manner that belied whom he was talking to. He could’ve been talking both to Corlys and Daemon, and the context really struggled with highlighting which of the two was the target of the statement. That’s in relation to the wonky scene, and it is really the big wonk.
THEN, there’s the Crab Feeder, who had some good body-language moments, implying things that worked on pumping up the character, but then he was really, really boring and uninteresting, as he said not a single word, and there was barely a face to be observed, so the performance was almost non-present.
Milly Alcock and Emily Carey did a good job in this one - I would be hard pressed to equate it to the perceived quality of their performances in episode 2, but it was definitely lacking the stiltedness of episode 1, so that’s a positive judgment.
Still, I feel as though this episode suffered quite a bit on the ‘enjoyability’ front as a result of the slight missteps, mainly due to the fact that they were concentrated on the ending… But it was, still, decent. 2/3
Story
Three years have passed since episode 2. I could have gathered that much, even without the direct information provided by the characters, which is not a bad thing. There’s a lot of good in this episode, but also a decent amount of bad.
Let’s start off with the bad. How did that weapon wind up in that character’s hand? How did that entity not injure that character? How did it all so conveniently align and allow that entity to show up before that particular character, even though that character was lugging around a corpse - and corpses are repulsive (or rather signs of danger) for the type of entity in question?
Or how did that character not notice those things? How did that character dodge literally a hundred arrows and only get hit in such incredibly unimportant spots that said character could go on and fight perfectly well - so well, in fact, that said character could literally cut another character in half? How did those characters reach that location so quickly, as supposed news-bearers, but then the news in question were nowhere to be found? Aren’t they meant to move at a similar pace?
Why can that character ride a dragon?
All of those questions are either unanswered or answered in a very unsatisfying way. By comparison, the previous episode - number 2 - had only… One? Maybe two big question marks, whereas this one has that many. Of course, some of those listed can be shattered into a number of smaller, more concrete question marks, but the important thing is that there are many, many such questions. Plot holes or overlooked things, those take away from the experience in an unpleasant manner.
I’ll go more in depth on them as I spoil everything, but then there’s also the good things. This episode really, REALLY focused on the two main characters - Rhaenyra (the princess) and Viserys (the King).
Now, while it did focus on Rhaenyra and her troubles, comparatively the King had the bigger bone to pick with himself. There was such a profoundly great examination of what it is to be King, to be saddled with great responsibilities and to crave the best for the realm. It is difficult on a conceptual level, because the approach Viserys takes is a very humane one, which goes against the approach an absolute ruler should take.
After all, being King means you, the King, are above everyone else. You are greater, more important and more powerful than then, and as a result of that you are MORE human than them, more VALUABLE than them, and that indicates you can order them around as though they were your marionettes, or as though they were well trained dogs. However, doing that disregards their humanity, does it not?
It is cruel, even. And that cruelty is something a properly human being, one who operates through reason and emotion - a healthy mix of the two, I’d say - ought not to exhibit. And so Viserys is trying his damnedest to be a good King when the station of King is made for men lesser than him, for ones more callous and more willing to disregard the humanity of people.
That’s why I find it so interesting. Viserys seems to be a righteous person, one who wishes to do what’s best for the realm - and what’s best for the realm is that stability is to be found within, that the laws and traditions are followed and that duties are upheld. As a result of that, he, the King, must act as an exemplar for the whole of Westeros, and must obey the laws, follow tradition and act according to his duty.
The same applies to his progeny and the remaining members of his family, but, unfortunately, these laws and traditions, these duties - they are not ones that consider their subjects human. At the very least half of those in question are not considered human, and then the other half is also, conditionally, not treated as human.
Is it human to be married by force? No, it is not, for it disregards the human concept of love. Is it human to treat others as lesser, based on a totally arbitrary thing? No, it is not. Is it human to cower before another and be willing to do everything for them, even if they have not earned it in any way, shape or form? No, it is not, and yet it is the norm, tradition and law in Westeros.
Viserys is being torn by these things, it is easy to see. Not only does the metaphor from the previous two episodes stand strong, but now it is even more exemplified. By being seated on the Throne, he is alone. There is no one else who can stand by him as his equal. Everyone cowers before him, everyone is lesser, and everyone considers him greater by merit of his Kingship.
Everyone treats him as super-human, or, rather, as different from human. In any case, he is not just any ordinary man, he is the King. He is not human, right?
That isolation is very well shown. So well, in fact, that the audience is also presented a coping mechanism. Wine. It is evident that indulgence is one of the means for dealing with stress - the stress of being King, of having so many responsibilities, if one takes them seriously, at least, that they eat at you. The rotten fingers, the tired look on his face, the emotional turmoil within him (which turmoil can not be shown to anyone) - all of this serves as an impressively neat indication of the faults of the system in place.
And it is truly interesting to see these faults of the system. Most often, the faults of the system are associated with the fact that those in power are corrupted by it, or they tend to seek it out for selfish reasons and then continue wielding it for selfish reasons. In this case, we are shown a relatively selfless man - not perfectly selfless, but close to being as selfless as one ought to be.
The great weight and responsibility that fall upon the shoulders of a man with a conscience is unmanageable, and the system has made it so the King can not be perceived as human or weak, and the perception of one as human is the perception of weakness. The weight of the King can not be shared with anyone, and any help he may obtain must be very carefully considered.
Fortunately for Viserys, he now has Alicent, but in gaining her he has, seemingly, lost Rhaenyra. She provides him with a proverbial shoulder so that he may cry upon it, but the great stresses of his situation only grow.
Rhaenyra, on the other hand, also has a very interesting conflict. So far, she has been an only child, and now she suddenly has a brother. Admittedly, it is a half-brother, but, still, it is her brother. In the process of gaining him, however, the great debacles have shown up. The attention of her parent is directed towards her brother, and the fact that her best (and only) friend is the mother of that child additionally takes away what she once had.
It is a way of showcasing the problems one older child might experience in the face of a younger child, this envy. In her case it is, unfortunately, far, far more exaggerated, because ALL of Westeros is fawning over her brother, while she is being pushed so far to the wayside that, seemingly, no one wants to even know of her.
And so the princess is trying to find a way to cope, to deal with this. The King has seen that she is angry, and the solution she has found is to bottle things up. A temporary and, frankly, unhealthy means of solving the problem.
That aspect of the story was very, very interesting, the examination of the characters and their struggles - absolutely sublime. Then there were some introductions of other characters, such as the sons of Lyonel Strong, or the Lannisters, or the extended family of Corlys - all of those characters wielding potential.
However, something else also happens. There’s a resolution of a plot-thread, a resolution of a conflict that appeared to have been getting built up over the first two episodes as something somewhat big. Its resolution is very swift and somewhat unsatisfying, leaving a bit of a void… Even if there is a new conflict, if it can be so called.
With that, though, I’ll start going into spoilers.
Boom! Battle! Torture! Dragon! Daemon riding dragon! Very cool, right? Very cool. This shows us the state of the ‘war’. The dragons show up, cause the forces of the Crab Feeder to flee into the caves, and that’s that. In this particular instance, the Crab Feeder’s got archers on the surrounding hills and they let loose countless arrows at Daemon and his dragon, and ONLY one arrow hits him - in a most unimportant spot that’s perfectly healed by the next time Daemon is shown to the audience.
Transition to a little celebration of Aegon II’s second name day, son of Viserys and Alicent. There is great excitement and happiness in court, as the King is organizing a hunt to properly celebrate Aegon’s second name day. There’s a Lannister fellow bringing information to the King, but Viserys would like to have the information wait a few days as he is not interested in having any of that. He is, however, curious as to where Rhaenyra is.
The princess is reading in solitude, which showcases the situation quite well. She feels dejected, evidently, and thrown to the side - supplanted, even. It is clear to her that the male heir will provoke every lord of the realm to desire that the male heir be made heir, rather than her. Alicent, heavily pregnant, shows up and is shown attempting to rekindle the fonder relations between herself and the princess, but Rhaenyra is having none of it.
They set off, riding in a carriage. The situation is not very pleasant and serene, as the princess is combative, verbally, even if her father is trying to lighten up the mood. Gradually, the way things have been going for the last three years is becoming clear to the viewers, and it leaves a sour taste in their mouths. After all, the second episode seemed as though it was about to present Viserys and Rhaenyra with a better, more communicative relationship, but alas.
The royal family arrives at the location of the hunt and there’s great celebration and jubilation in Aegon’s honor, while Rhaenyra demonstratively remains in the carriage, in the shadow, totally unwanted. There’s some interaction between her and the ladies of the court, with Alicent showcased as being on her side, even defensive of her, or perhaps supportive of the King’s decisions, but Rhaenyra is cross and also quite nastily assailed, verbally, by the aforementioned ladies.
She gets approached by Jason Lannister, who gets a bit touchy but retains the respectful approach of it, and tactfully (not) asks for her hand in marriage. Of course, Rhaenyra is not having it, so she goes and has a very audible argument with her father, which only emphasizes the conflict Viserys himself is going through with his own self.
The princess storms off on a horse, and sir Cole rides off after her. They have a little friendly chat, showcasing that they are, at least, on good terms with one another. Meanwhile, a white hart is spotted (hart being an archaic word for stag), and the chase is on. The King is taken to his trackers and he displays impressive proficiency in hunting. He makes some good deductions, he handles deer poo with considerable nonchalance - that’s quite neat.
He’s not a coddled man, but then the way the hunt is going… The way the hunt is being done - that’s just wrong. He has a lad put a step on the side of his horse so he can dismount. He has a massive entourage. He is not doing the tracking himself - he’s not doing the hunting. It’s a mockery of the concept, yet I suppose that’s the only way for a King to do hunting.
Following that, back to camp. Jason Lannister presents him a spear - for the hunt - and speaks in relation to his fitness to be given Rhaenyra’s hand, but he slips up and implies she will lose her status as heir as a result of the King naming Aegon heir. Viserys is not having that and spooks Lannister, but he, himself, is addled by this.
Then Otto hops on by and makes another proposition, one that would solve their problems for the moment - that Rhaenyra be betrothed to Aegon. What struck me here was that there was no objection to them being brother and sister (albeit half), the objection was that Aegon was only 2. Still, the humanity of Viserys is on display, but the social norms of the epoch are also well showcased. It is… Disturbing, to say the least, just how accepted incest is.
Viserys dismisses Otto by informing him he organized the hunt to get away from this ‘fucking politicking’. Then, he gets very drunk and is approached by Lyonel Strong - who looks like a bit of a sweetheart and his deeds and demeanor, so far, have been supportive of the idea that he’s a sweetheart - and the latter tells him about Rhaenyra, who’s still missing.
They have a conversation about her, and Lyonel offers an opinion, which defies the King’s expectations by being in favor of Rhaenyra wedding the Sea Snake (Corlys Velaryon)’s son. Viserys has a moment of contemplation, stands up, gives Lyonel a pat on the shoulder and wobbles off, outside.
Meanwhile, sir Cole and the princess are camped by a fire in the woods. Sir Cole tries, and fails, to convince her to go back to the proper camp, they have a conversation in which sir Cole informs her that the men of the realm will have to accept her as Queen, then a boar attacks.
This is the first BIG ‘what?’ moment of the episode. The boar attacks - unprovoked - topples Cole and assails Rhaenyra. She suffers no injuries as she somehow manages to keep its tusks at bay with her hands, then Cole stabs it nicely.
It turns out not to be dead, at which point the princess procures a dagger out of literally nowhere - no idea why she did not procure it when the boar was on top of her - and stabs the animal to death, getting covered in blood. This is a very weird scene to me. Why does the boar attack them? It really does seem unprovoked. It just decides to charge at two humans and two horses - almost all of them bigger than it, with the exception of Rhaenyra who’s probably about equal in size to it.
Do boars do that? Are they aggressive in that sense– NO! They aren’t. They can attack if provoked. If left at a distance, undisturbed, things are okay. Well, this one was definitely not disturbed - it was doing the disturbance!
Also, how come it didn’t do anything to the princess? Remember Bobby Berathion and his encounter with a boar? Remember how Bobby Berathion was a tough nut to crack - physically strong soldier who’s killed many people, even if he was now fat and slightly old? Yeah… In any case, Rhaenyra did everything she should not have done when fighting a wild boar - she was on the ground, on her back, and the boar was on top of her, but NOTHING, literally NOTHING happened to her. Not a scratch!
And then the magic knife is also a big question mark, as it could’ve easily shown up earlier, but ah well. This scene is… It’s a scene. It’s a wonder why sir Cole doesn’t ask her if she’s okay after he stabs the boar and has it fall off of her - King’s Guard and that…
Fortunately, there’s a palette cleanser. Viserys is standing by a humongous bonfire, thinking and drinking (mutually exclusive?). Alicent shows up and has a conversation with him, and the chat they have is fantastic. The King expresses uncertainty and fear over the potential that he was wrong and that his decisions were wrong. Knowing what his quest is, knowing how heavy the crown weighs on his head, it is not a wonder that he ponders with such despair the possibility of being wrong.
After all, if he was, this could spell the end of the world of man.
In any case, there’s even more goodness to be had. The horns sound and, on the next day, a hart has been found. It isn’t the white hart, but it is a big one, and it’s… It’s caught. The animal that is equated to being the symbol of Kings in Westeros, prior to the arrival of the dragons, whilst also being the King of the King’s Wood, is in a very disturbing position.
One of its legs is tied, and its antlers are also tied, with the animal being pulled in different directions by three strong men - two of whom are on horseback. It can’t move, even if it is King. The metaphor is very difficult to lose - this is Viserys himself. He is torn between his humanity and his Kingship, he is held in place, imprisoned, by duty and tradition.
Sure, he may have all the honors that a man can be presented with, but he is still caught and pulled in every direction at once. The dogs, frothing at the mouths, are also a neat touch. That’s everyone else, wanting a piece of him, always looking for a moment of weakness, for the opportune moment to satisfy their voracious appetite.
He kills the hart, although it takes two blows. I would like to think to myself that Viserys wanted to spare it the pain, for he, too, saw himself in it, but alas. Maybe that’s prophecy?
Then, we get another scene that’s very questionable. Rhaenyra, covered in boar blood, is looking at the camp from an elevated location. Sir Cole has strapped the boar’s corpse to his horse in an impromptu draggie (I came up with this word, it’s just two pieces of wood strapped to the saddle of a horse, with some impediments between them - in this case the boar corpse) and is standing next to his animal.
Then, the big, majestic, white hart approaches the two, gives them a look - sir Cole makes to unsheathe his sword, but the princess stops him from doing so. Then the white hart just skips away. THAT, ladies, gentlemen and N-bees, is not hart behavior. It’s no wild animal behavior at all, especially prey animals.
Now, deer DO eat meat, but this is just… I’m not buying it. I get the metaphor - it is Rhaenyra who’s going to be Queen, the Gods evidently will it so - it’s a decent attempt, especially considering all the fuss about the white hart everyone’s been blabbering around. But, well, it could’ve been executed better… Instead of this.
Well, with that Rhaenyra returns to camp with her catch, and we get some reactions - the healthy son of lord Strong has a very supportive reaction (I think he finds it cool, giving her a nod with a big smile on his face) - everyone else is a bit flabbergasted.
Then back to King’s landing. Otto and Alicent have a conversation about the state of things, with Otto evidently pushing his agenda (I suppose it is an agenda, I can’t be too certain) of wanting his line to ascend the throne, and Alicent seemingly agreeing to talk with Viserys.
She has a chat with him, which chat swirls around Rhaenyra and the war in the Salt Stepstones. They do have a good dynamic between one another, with Alicent perfectly fulfilling the role she’s been given - to be the King’s support. She gives him bits of advice, helps him think things through through the utilization of questions and is, overall, a good influence for Viserys. Quite nice.
Boom, next scene - Viserys sending word to Daemon that he’s sending reinforcements while Rhaenyra is entering the small council’s meeting chamber. They have a very, VERY good conversation. I think it is good, because it showcases that he cares about her, that he wants what’s best for her, but he manages to do it in a much better manner than what he presented to her in the fancy tent in the camp.
She expresses her fears and her opinions on the matter, shares how she has understood things, and he corrects her on what she has misunderstood, while taking into account what she says - or so it seems. LOOK, people, LOOK! Communication! People talking and solving their problems through talking and understanding. He makes a compromise - the princess must marry, but she shall be the one to choose who winds up with her. She seems to take it.
The last thing he says to her before the scene ends is that he might have had his doubts at one time, he is able to guarantee on her mother’s memory - whom we all know he really, really loved - that Rhaenyra will not be supplanted. That might be a tad problematic in future episodes - as that’s where the conflict will be, I suppose - but it is good.
Naturally, this episode featured a lot of the ‘is woman, woman no can be king’ talk. That’s something that we ought to expect, and I’d like to say that the presentation is becoming better and better with each passing episode… Or maybe I’m getting used to it. In any case, again, it’s a bit dry and old for yours truly, but it works. Let’s see it become a proper reason for conflict, though. So far, there’s been nothing relating to it.
Lastly, the episode concludes with the biggest bungle of bungles. The Sea Snake (Corlys) is having a strategic meeting with his son and brother, who are apparently commanders, and they are thinking up a strategy. He says ‘dragons’, not ‘dragon’, which is all the information pertaining to what happens next that we get.
A strategy is devised, one involving bait, but Daemon needs to relinquish command OR agree to the idea. It seems, however, as though he isn’t going to do that.
Now, there’s something I can’t quite understand. From what the audience is shown, there are no ships that are at the Crab Feeder’s disposal. Even if there were, they get turned into torches by the dragons. Thus, this war is… How is this war ongoing? For THREE years?
There was mention of the cover of night, but why can’t the dragons operate at night, either? If the ship problem is not a problem, then why don’t the forces of the Sea Snake blockade the location wherein the goons are, and then make use of the dragons to get rid of any problematic factors - such as catapults or archers?
Better yet, why don’t the dragons just cause cave-ins and destroy all the entrances to the caves, maybe safe one? There are so many strange decisions that appear to have been made by the warring forces, and so many that appear to have not been considered… It’s strange.
Either way, Daemon returns just in time to potentially hear Corlys’ brother stoke the flames of mutiny, removes his gloves, gives everyone a very pregnant look and then the messengers of the king arrive. How’d they get there so quickly? Actually, we can’t know if it was ‘so’ quickly, but there’s just the perception (or lack thereof) of time passing.
Either way, the messengers deliver the message, but the forces on their way to assist are not present. How? Weren’t these forces going to be boarding 10 ships? Don’t ships move faster than horses on land? What kind of transport did the messengers make use of that was faster than the ships? Skiffs? Either way, that’s a big question-mark.
Daemon loses it after reading the letter and uses his helmet to pummel the poor messenger, then he walks off dejectedly. From that, the audience can assume that his pride is monstrously hurt, his brother finally sending aid only because the situation seems so hopeless. He sets off, with a tiny little boat, all by himself, and sails onto the shore where the fighting takes place - where the Crab Feeder is stationed.
He surrenders, but not quite. As soon as there’s goons next to him, thinking they’ve got him - he’s handed over his sword and stuff - he starts killing. He kills five goons (one of whom he murders by performing a dropkick - ye right), then he dodges hundreds of arrows by running in a straight line, killing dozens of other goons (without getting a single injury) and as he’s killing his final goon, he finally get shot.
Pierced by… 3 arrows, all of which are not anywhere important. Flesh wounds, all of them - one in the back of the knee, but not quite, one in the right shoulder, but not quite, and one in the right side of his torso, but not quite, because none of them do anything to him other than slow him down a bit.
He drags himself underneath a rickety ship skeleton, and dodges dozens of arrows while lying in the sand and removing the arrows lodged in his body. The Crab Feeder decides to send ALL his men - ALL of them - to slinky clinky Daemon, because he’s such a proficient fighter he can kill squads of six with great ease.
Surrounded on all sides, Daemon stands up, ready to fight… And then, out of nowhere, the forces of the Sea Snake show up. AND THEN, OUT OF ACTUALLY NOWHERE, A DRAGON (not Daemon’s) swoops down and burns every single soldier surrounding Daemon (like, a hundred or maybe two hundred men), without anyone noticing it. Meanwhile, the Crab Feeder is so paranoid, he keeps looking at the sky - how’d that dragon get by him, I don’t know. Maybe that blind left eye… But is it even blind?
Either way, battle commences. The dragon being ridden is some gray-ish white-ish dragon, ridden by Corlys’ son. How does that goon know how to ride a dragon? Sure, a multitude of dragons was mentioned, but aren’t all the dragons (safe for Daemon’s dragon) in King’s Landing?
Or, maybe, and hear me out here, Rhaenys (Corlys’ son’s mother) had a dragon of her own, because Targaryen, and Targaryen children have dragon eggs in their cradles. So, maybe she had a dragon and kept it and took it to the Sea Snake’s castle/citadel/whatever, and then she taught her son how to ride the dragon…
That theory falls apart whenever we consider the actions of Corlys’ son (he will remain Corlys’ son because I heard his name once and I couldn’t care less, for the moment he is unimportant). He screams in joy, giving a ‘wohoo’ when the dragon grabs two soldiers and then drops them from 30 feet to their death. A man killing people by dragon, an experienced man killing people by dragon, would not go ‘wohoo’.
In addition to that, he screeches ‘Drakarys’ to command the dragon to breathe fire. An experienced dragon rider - Daemon - doesn’t need to do that, because Daemon (who was shown riding his dragon into battle at the start of the episode) did not shout ‘Drakarys’ even once.
So it’s totally inexplicable to me. Makes very little sense. HOWEVER, by merit of this being a serial film, this could be explained in the next episode, so I will be merciful.
The colossal amounts of plot armor on Daemon’s body, however, are inexplicable. Shot in the leg, shoulder and torso, he runs after the Crab Feeder - runs after him, literally - and they fight off screen. He then comes out of the cave dragging an armless, half-of-a-torso-less Crab Feeder corpse, guts and all hanging off of it. How’d he have that much strength to cut him in half after the wounds and–
Okay. Okay. You get it, dear reader. This is a mess. This whole thing is a big, big mess. And it ends there.
With that all being said, with this recap being performed, I think what happened is that the audience was not shown something it should have been shown - that being Daemon agreeing to the plan proposed by Corlys’ son as a means of defeating the Crab Feeder without the reinforcements from the crown, as a means of succeeding in making himself look dependable and strong, of fortifying his position and amassing support.
Unfortunately, what we got was a depiction of Daemon being very upset at his brother for sending aid and deciding to go in, alone, to then kill all the Crab Feeder’s men, and it was coincidence that the Sea Snake’s forces arrived to assist. That’s the vibe one gets without introducing some writing on the part of the audience. I am not the screenwriter, though, and so I should not be doing this.
In any case, the last ten, twelve minutes of this episode severely lessened my enjoyment of it and really threw a wrench in the quality. 2/3
Legendary Point
Does this episode get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? While I would like to say yes, I will not say yes. This episode does NOt get the legendary point, on grounds of most conflicts within it being based on lack of communication between people, as well as a large number of wonky business in the last 1/5th of the episode. 0/1
Conclusion
6/10. If one has made it to the third episode of a show or serial film, that is when they decide whether or not they will continue that show… On average. One could make their judgment off of a single episode, but oftentimes a pilot has a lot more effort put into it than the subsequent episodes, so a trio of episodes is usually the good call.
Basing my judgment on these three episodes, I’ll have to say that this show is worth a watch, perhaps mainly for the humanity of the King and his struggles as a King. Recommendation extends to those who like Dark Fantasy of the low variety, Game of Thrones and… Dramas? I think it’s more drama than politics, frankly, but I could be wrong. Either way, this is a big no-no for squeamish people still.
I tuck it under my belt, dangerously close to the dusty bag of mediocrity. It’s not a shining achievement, but it is decently good… Even if it could have been a lot better.