House of The Dragon Season 1 Episode 2 Review

[Herbert Playz]

How bout that Rhaneyra/Daemon confrontation scene! The dragons were looking fierce. I knew Rhaneyra just had to show up, it was just too perfect of a scene, with the clouds scattered all around to waste.

Otto was a complete idiot to consider going to Dragonstone himself. That felt a little out of character for him. He should have known better. Was he planning to get himself killed? Daemon could have made barbecue chicken out of everyone on that narrow bridge! They were like little ducks perfectly lined up. And then he tries to talk smart to Rhaenyra! 😂. This man has a death wish.

Also, I just want to give a big shout out to the showrunners. I absolutely love seeing Rhaneyra and Daemon just start speaking High Valyrian whenever they meet. It makes it seem like they come from another world and truly gives them an aura of power and otherworldliness that the other highborn nobles don't have.

Episode 2 was admittedly dragging in the beginning. It needed some life and of course Daemon was all to happy to oblige. I found it kind of weird that Daemon just haphazardly throws the egg back to Rhaneyra and then the soldiers throw it into a boiling goblet or whatever that was.

I also thought Rhaneyra asking about which egg was stolen during the small council meeting was a little clumsy. Yes, I understand that it serves like another insult to king Viserys. First Daemon talks about "heir for a day" when Viserys son dies and then he steals the egg that was to be placed in his crib. But if the writers needed to add that plot device to build tension between Daemon and Viserys they should have mentioned the egg a number of times in episode 1 and emphasized the Targaryen custom. Just randomly throwing it in during the small council meeting made the reveal lack weight to me.

Corlys Velaryon tried his best, he shot his shot with the betrothal suggestion and got turned down in an embarrassing fashion at the small council meeting. King Viserys is not a shrewd politician. He seems to lack the necessary skills to be an effective king and retain the loyalty of those closest to him. Rhaneyra discovering that Alicent had been giving attention to her dad had to feel like a betrayal by both her father and her friend. Why would anyone want to alienate the heir to the throne? It makes absolutely no sense. Also is the King blind? Surely a wise king could see that Otto Hightower has been scheming for this very outcome the entire time.

At the very end Corlys Velaryon making common cause with Daemon make a ton of sense. My only problem is they made the scene too dark and conspiratorial. The Sea Snake is not "Littlefinger" or "The Spider" he is a powerful, self-made and proud man. As dangerous as prince Daemon is, it didn't feel right that he would tell the Sea Snake to watch how he talks about his brother the king.

I would have preferred the two make common cause out of mutual respect, rather than the scene being built as if Prince Daemon is giving him an audience. Corlys Velaryon is the blood of old Valyria, his wife "the queen that never was" is a targaryen and they have two children together. He's the richest man in the seven kingdoms at this time. It's been a while since I've read the books but I'm pretty sure they have dragons now too. By all intents and purposes he is vastly more influential than Daemon.

Either way though, Daemon and Corlys making common cause actually helps the king. He won't like them taking action into their own hands but I predict he won't do anything substantial about it. The king knows that he's alienated Corlys and Daemon by choosing to marry Alicent Hightower. If they decide to occupy their time fighting in the stepstones instead of plotting some coup, that's all for the better.