In my third episode article, I said that everything we’ve watched so far is a preparation for what will happen as of episode 6. We get to know new characters and encounter details that will come up in the future. As of the fourth episode, the series began establishing the characters’ motivations. Now that we know all the characters, we also know their feelings for each other. From what I saw on social media, everyone slowly became familiar with the characters. This episode’s purpose was to ignite a future bomb’s fuse. That fuse was ignited by the fire of love. We are in the last days of character designs. Next week’s episode will be Milly Alcock and Emily Carey’s final episode. We will make final uploads of our characters before an extensive time warp. I’ll explain this episode by dividing it into 3 categories that I think are the most accurate: Spark, Fire, and Ashes.
First Episode’s Review
Second Episode’s Review
Third Episode’s Review
Spark
In the last chapter, we saw how eager King Viserys was to marry his daughter Rhaenyra. In this episode, we see Rhaenyra sifting through her suitors in Storm’s End, which we probably see for the first time. Having to sift through many nonsensical candidates, Rhaenyra’s mind is on Daemon. This is why the episode opens with the necklace. What makes the groom’s convoy exciting is the Blackwood brat being disturbed by Bracken. When Samwell Blackwood tells Rhaenyra I’ll protect you, Amos Bracken mocks him by saying, “the queen has a dragon.” Although he is essentially correct, this sentence contains a complete reference to the future. In the original story, Samwell Blackwood loses his duel against Amos Bracken. However, I think that the screenwriters changed the fight entirely because of the Targaryen children, who would later push Westeros into the war at the age of Samwell.
Daemon is the person who establishes the self-confidence of her fondness for freedom. The time Rhaenyra and Daemon spent on the streets of King’s Landing was wonderful. For the first time, we saw the nightlife of King’s Landing so close. The fact that Rhaenyra was called a “boy” by those who bumped into her while she was walking around the city was a reference to Arya. Fortune Teller’s “Do you wish to know your death, child” question while the flames bursting from the mouths of the dragons at the back was a magnificent detail. I’m not going too deep…
Likewise, the “Secret Passage” that allows Rhaenyra to sneak away is one of the details you should keep in mind. We will encounter these Passages frequently in the coming seasons. These tunnels were once built by Maegor the Cruel. Maegor arranged a feast for builders for 3 days and then had them all killed. These passages are like secrets to many. But not for Daemon.
Daemon shows Rhaenyra real life outside the castle. But Rhaenyra is so used to the palace life that she doesn’t even know that she has to pay for the food she bought from the street vendor. We know that Daemon is a gray character. In the original story, Daemon takes Rhaenyra to the King’s Landing brothel, where she observes “womanly arts.” More than that, Daemon has been with Rhaenyra many times, teaching her what to do during intercourse so that Rhaenyra can seduce Criston Cole. But the series has gone to a divergence here. It’s also possible that Daemon deliberately lured Rhaenyra into a trap so he could suit her in the future. But the most essential part of the episode was what he said to Rhaenyra:
“A marriage is a duty, but that doesn’t stop us from doing what we want.”
Rhaenyra, who is already fond of her freedom, will have relationships with many men in the future because of this “take what you want” idea.
Fire
Almost all of the characters took action in this episode. Daemon appeared as the king of the Narrow Sea but then reverted to the traits that made him who he was. First, he was so close to making love with his niece Rhaenyra, then closed the night in Mysaria’s hotel. The little boy who saw Rhaenyra fleeing is one of the White Worm Mysaria’s “birds.” You may remember from Varys that he was calling his children birds. As she herself said, Mysaria has left her brothel life and turned to another job. This job is to keep the pulse of the city and the streets. For this reason, she will become an essential character in the future.
Returning to her room, Rhaenyra tried what she had seen on the street and the art of making love that she had prepared with Daemon on Criston Cole. Despite saying that they shot the sex scene well, the thing that caught my attention the most in the episode was Criston’s kindness. He tried to reject Rhaenyra but failed. He folded his clothes and laid them neatly. He wants Rhaenyra but also respects the white cloak and knows where he comes from. His delicate touches were the details that revealed his character. Any other “lord” would climb on top of Rhaenyra and make love as if they were riding a horse. But Criston has proven to be a strong character not only on the battlefield but also in bed.
My current paragraph is actually a summary of everything that will happen in the future. Rhaenyra, the king’s daughter. She embraces freedom and makes it a mantel to get what she wants with Daemon’s push. She’s got Valyrian blood in her and is also a dragon rider. Someone that many women would envy. Rhaenyra’s power and reputation are undeniable, although the public does not want a “female” leader, as we saw in the theater in the city. But Alicent is just a baby boomer machine that the king calls into his room to plant his seeds, as we saw in the episode, and like Rhaenyra said, stuck between the castle walls. Obviously, time passed again because Alicent was holding Helaena in this episode.
I also wrote in the last article; Despite everything, Alicent still treats Rhaenyra well. She continues to defend Rhaenyra, even as she begins to dislike the Targaryens, and makes us feel her jealousy. Now think about what a dangerous man Otto is. Despite everything, she will eventually turn her daughter into a hateful monster who still wants to hold Rhaenyra’s hand.
And Ashes
All the characters who took action in this episode received the results of their actions very quickly. Rhaenyra gave the whole realm a rumor that the king could not bear. She was either tricked by Daemon or fell victim to Otto’s cunning. In any case, she fell into the embrace of the marriage she had avoided. Laena Velaryon, whose name we have been talking about for 3 episodes and who is constantly trying to get married just like Rhaenyra, will marry the son of a sea lord from Bravos. It would not be good for Westeros and the Targaryens to marry Bravos, the mightiest of the free cities, and Velaryons, lord of the Narrow Sea. When Rhaenyra gives gossip material to the whole kingdom, the king Viserys has no trump to play and decides to have Laenor and Rhaenyra married. Rhaenyra agreed, too. But on one condition…
The Hightower family may be the sneakiest and most slippery family in Westeros history. I will write an article about them in the coming days. A dangerous and cunning family that always knows where to stand. Otto is the embodiment of this cunning. He seeks Rhaenyra’s faults just so that his grandson can ascend to the throne, as Viserys -eventually- said. We saw the bird boy give a coin to Mysaria. This money is most likely from Otto Hightower. In his last conversation with Otto, Viserys hints that he may have replaced previous kings and candidates with his cunning. And he wants him to go after he rips off the hand of the king badge. But rest assured, Otto will be back. You won’t be able to get rid of this man for a long time.
Viserys confronted not only Otto but also Daemon. Having fun with his brother enough to make fun of his wife at the beginning of the episode, Viserys comes to the point where he almost kills his brother. On the other hand, Daemon didn’t say anything, knowing that nothing had happened between him and Rhaenyra. At the end of this part, which remained faithful to the book, although not entirely, I couldn’t help but wonder if Daemon had tricked Rhaenyra. He formally asked to be married to Rhaenyra. He gave Aegon the Conqueror for this reason. Aegon had married both of his sisters. One was out of duty, and the other was based on love. Daemon also married the “bronze bitch” out of duty, but he wants Rhaenyra because he really loves her. And we will see in more detail later that he is not after the throne as Viserys accused him. He doesn’t tell the truth about Rhaenyra at the expense of being exiled, allowing her to be tainted. The fact that Daemon didn’t tell the truth will also drive Rhaenyra and Criston apart. But I wonder what story the series will tell about the relationship between the two. Rhaenyra will open? Or is it Criston?
Beautiful Details
I like House of the Dragon so much because they design the chapters’ math so well. Almost everything we see in the frame has been carefully selected. We are especially shown the crown that Viserys wore before Daemon came. That crown will go round and round in the future to reach Rhaenyra’s hand. Again, as Daemon kneels and Viserys approaches him, the sword he uses as a cane is Blackfyre. It will also become an essential part of the series in the future.
We are familiar with the street theaters from Game of Thrones. There are a lot of plays like this on the streets. Arya had encountered one while on Bravos. Theaters like these are important to cities because most of them are political. They tell what happened in the palace and the war by combining them with gossip. We understand from the play that the people do not want Rhaenyra. We will see the consequences of this in the following episodes.
Emilia Clarke did a tremendous job as Daenerys. But after Matt Smith and Milly Alcock, I realized how foul the Valyrian language she spoke was. The duo speaks the Valyrian language so well that it’s hard not to be amazed. There are 2 reasons why the two prefer to speak a foreign language when they are side by side. One, let others not understand them. Two, the romance between them. Their High Valyrian conversations with each other are mostly related to their fiery feelings for each other. You can think of it as flirting.
We got more details on the dagger that Viserys showed us in the first episode, which Arya used to kill the Night King. When you put the dagger into the fire, writing appears on it, like the Ring in Lord of the Rings. Viserys says the Song of Fire and Ice is written on it, and Rhaenyra reads it. It’s also really astounding that this dagger has reached Jon and Daenerys. Even better, the dagger most likely comes from Valyria. Viserys says that Aenar the Exile gave the dagger to Aegon. Aenar was Daenys’ father. Daenys dreams that one-day Valyria will be destroyed. Aenar believes in his daughter, sells all his possessions, escapes with the Velaryons, and settles in Dragonstone. And Valyria vanishes into the ashes, just as Daenys saw in her dream. And this dagger sees it all. It wanders around with a purpose: until it finds Fire and Ice.
The tea Viserys sent to his daughter is called Moon Tea, a birth control potion prepared by maesters and forest witches, which also appears in the Game of Thrones books. Viserys thinks his daughter could be pregnant because Daemon didn’t tell the truth, but Rhaenyra was with Criston. The confusion here will reach a much more interesting point in the future.
Finally, I would like to talk about the next episode’s trailer. A dwarf appears in the trailer, not even for 1 second. This dwarf is most likely Mushroom. Fire and Blood, which tells the history of Targaryen, is not actually a novel. It is a book that is a compilation of history and the stories of many different names. Think of it like a history book in King’s Landing that tells the history of Targaryen. George R.R. Martin tells the story through the characters in the Game of Thrones books. But there is only one narrator in Fire and Blood, and this person tells the stories based on eyewitnesses. There are 3 main names: Septon Eustace, Master Munkun, and Mushroom. All of them tell different versions of many events that will happen in the series. Mushroom versions are always sharper and more challenging. He claims that Rhaenyra had sex with Daemon. My reference was here when I asked if Rhaenyra would open up to Criston Cole or if Criston Cole would open up to her. Because according to Mushroom, Rhaenyra opened up to Criston Cole. If the dwarf we see is Mushroom, it means we will always see him around.