I was so proud of myself. I had such a handle on House of the Dragon season two—all the complexities, schemings, the convoluted relationships. No matter how many Luceryses, Jacaeryses, Jaehaeryses, and Laryses they threw at me, I was keeping track. But now, we have bastards. They speak of their parentage and my mind goes to mush. Hugh’s mom was the aunt to King Viserys and Daemon, Ulf comes from god knows where. Suddenly, there are more Targaryens than I can keep count—but does it really matter where these men and women come from? With the claiming of their dragons, they’ve effectively erased their past. Now that they’re dragonlords, nothing else matters. And despite any confusion that was caused, don’t get it twisted, I’m all for this recontextualization of Westerosi bastards. I’m no Jacaerys. When Rhaenyra declares, “Let us raise an army of bastards,” I almost got out of my seat and cheered. The Game of Thrones universe does have a great track record with bastard-led battles.
Episode seven, the penultimate of the season, is all about the little guy rising up. Hugh and Ulf get a chance at a second life, one that takes them away from the poverty and starvation of King’s Landing. But there is also the more literal little guy, Oscar Tully, the new Lord Paramount of the Riverlands. Now that his grandfather, Grover, has finally passed on, this young boy (he realistically can’t be more than 15, right?) has become one of the major players in Westeros, and by extension, the Dance of the Dragons. But Oscar proves himself worthy almost immediately. He doesn’t cower in Daemon’s admittedly intimidating presence, nor does he succumb to the wishes of the Riverlords. He stands on reason, and he manipulates the King consort and the Riverlords like a teenage boy might manipulate a competitor in a Fortnite Battle Royale (I’m not exactly sure how 15-year-olds spend their time these days). It’s the most exciting thing to happen in Harrenhal all season, unfortunately followed up by another one of Daemon’s stale dreams. We get it, he wants to be King, but he is conflicted about it. Can we move on?
Luckily, we do, fairly quickly, since there is much more to get through in this episode. The Red Sowing opens up with just one of the many estimable shots of the hour—a standoff between Rhaenyra and her dragon, Syrax, and Addam and his newly claimed Seasmoke. I almost expected the theme from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly to start playing, but Addam immediately bends the knee to his Queen. This opening scene is the first bit of proof that episode seven is truly “for the dragons.” Five of them make appearances, and we get to experience these great beasts (and the modern CGI technology that brings them to life on screen) in all their glory, starting with this beach rendezvous.
Of course, Addam’s claiming of Seasmoke sends Rhaenyra back to her books, as she tries to figure out who else can claim a dragon. Luckily, Mysaria is there to open up the Queen’s world beyond the walls of castles. The Targaryen bloodlines mixed within the great houses are thin, but do you know what is strong? The dragon blood that surges through the Targaryen bastards living throughout Westeros, who are only one, maybe two rungs away from the Queen herself on the family tree.
So, Mysaria sends their King’s Landing plant, Elinda, on another task—this time, to gather the bastards of King’s Landing and send them to Dragonstone in an attempt to claim a dragon. And although it was Jacaerys’s idea in the first place to look outside the immediate family for dragon riders, he didn’t mean the whore houses of Westeros, for goodness sake! The Prince shows his age with his little fit, but his reasoning is valid. It’s clear he’s self-conscious about his own parentage and, therefore, his claim to the throne. When he was one of the few who could claim a dragon, he had that going for him, but now that any old Targaryen bastard can saddle up, there is nothing differentiating him from the dozens of silver-haired small folk that live within the crevices of Westeros. Unfortunately for Jace, his mother doesn’t have a choice. She has a war to win, and clearly, small folk are claiming dragons whether they like it or not. At least if she helps facilitate it, there’s more of a chance the new dragon riders will ride for her.
So, Rhaenyra goes on her bastard hunt. She gathers dozens of alleged Targaryens in the Dragonstone dragon pit and puts on her best impression of a preacher among her parish, giving an inspiring sermon on the need for peace, and how claiming dragons will help put an end to war and suffering. Though those two points are seemingly counterintuitive, Rhaenyra is pretty convinced that when the Greens see Rhaenyra’s army of dragons, they will surrender. Unfortunately, she is likely wrong in that assumption. The Greens don’t care about the general population’s well-being as much as Rhaenyra claims to. They have an attitude reminiscent of Vanessa Hudgens in the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. “Yeah, people are going to die, which is terrible, but like, inevitable?” Of course, Rhaenyra is no saint; soon after giving a speech on the importance of ending suffering, she sends dozens of people to a fiery death at Vermithor. Hey, at least two dragons were claimed in the process.
This is really Team Black’s episode, but we do get a few peeks into the goings-on at King’s Landing. Aemond is relishing his role as Prince regent, while Aegon is looking more and more like his late father. Why do these Targaryens hang onto their silver hair when the few wisps that remain on their head make them look like walking corpses? Well, not exactly a walking corpse, since Aegon is still struggling to move around, no matter how hard Larys pushes him. Unfortunately for Aegon, his mother isn’t there to protect him from the Clubfoot—she is too busy having her empty nester’s holiday in the Kingswood. It seems Alicent needs to get her groove back, since she’s struggling to find a purpose following her removal from the small council. And just like any stressed-out mother who indulges in a spa weekend, it is a cold plunge that brings Alicent back to the present.
Just in time—because while Alicent is having her Thoreau moment, the Blacks are assembling their army of dragons, and they waste no time in threatening the Prince regent with their new firepower. Yes, Aemond retreats in fear this time, but it seems unlikely he will do so again. Rhaenyra hopes the dragons will scare the Greens into submission. More likely, it will push them to even more extreme levels of retaliation.
