Small Council: What did you think of “The Princess and the Queen”?

Every week, we talk back and forth about the latest episode of House of the Dragon. The small council is in session!

DAN: Between introducing a bunch of new characters and acclimating us to a number of new actors playing old ones, “The Princess and the Queen” had a lot of heavy lifting to do. This was basically a second pilot, and I thought it performed well.

I liked the energy all the new, younger characters brought to the show. I liked Jacaerys bonding with his dragon Vermax in the Dragonpit, I liked Aegon being a lazy mess, and I liked Rhaena bonding with her mother and feeling distant from her father Daemon, who was the last person I’d expected to see settle down and become a dad. I’ve read Fire & Blood, so I know where Aemond’s story is going, and I enjoyed getting a look at him as an insecure little boy who steals into the depths of the Dragonpit to get a look at a fire-breathing behemoth. There’s lots to play with here.

As for the characters we know, I bought Emma D’Arcy as an older version of Milly Alcock. Her Rhaenyra seemed older and wiser, but I could still see the young ambitious girl we knew behind her eyes. Alicent was trickier. Olivia Cooke is obviously very good — I liked the scene where she grabs Aegon by the face and yells at him about the danger he’d be in if Rhaenyra took the throne — but she’s playing Alicent as angrier than Emily Carey did.

Also, to be honest, I didn’t quite get why Alicent decided to break with Rhaenyra in the last episode, so I don’t quite get why she’s so dead set against her now. A lot can change in 10 years, but I’d have liked that particular transition to have been a bit smoother. What did you guys think of the change-over?

“The Princess and the Queen” had a tough job to do and I think it mostly pulled it off. Curious to hear what you all think.

ARIBA: This week’s episode of House of the Dragon was particularly special for me because I am a huge fan of Olivia Cooke. She absolutely dazzles in her first episode as Alicent Hightower, and I was savoring every moment.

I have been enjoying these time jumps. I don’t want to linger in the same time for too long because there is a lot of ground to cover. I love that the creators decided to take this route, and I feel that it pays off this week in a big way.

Alicent’s anger and animosity towards Rhaenyra in “The Princess and the Queen” pulled me into the episode in a way I wasn’t quite expecting. It was a drastic shift from the Alicent of a decade ago, which makes me wonder what happened over the last 10 years? Clearly, with every child Rhaenyra has, her family’s claim to the throne grows stronger. Or does it, given that Rhaenyra’s children are all bastards? I agree with Dan that the shift was a bit abrupt and I’d have liked it if they spent more time helping us understand why Alicent has gotten so angry.

I’d like for the series to shed some light on that front, so I’m hoping in the future episodes that is precisely what we get!

DANIEL: I’ll start by echoing the sentiments about Alicent; I really loved Olivia Cooke on the whole, but did have a moment where I thought “wow, Alicent has really changed a lot in these 10 years.” It works, because sure, that is a lot of time. But it also knocked me out of the immersion for just a second, because her Alicent is written very differently than Emily Carey’s. I didn’t have that issue with Rhaenyra, Laenor, or Laena, all of whom felt like very natural extensions of their younger selves. King’s Landing has changed Alicent, and not for the kinder.

All that said, I loved “The Princess and the Queen” overall. It felt a bit like a second pilot, reintroducing us to familiar characters who were recast or aged up with make-up while also showing a whole new generation of the family. Aegon was a perfectly spoiled brat, Jacaerys’ moment bonding with his dragon Vermax was wonderful, and the little glimpse at Helaena was also very intriguing (and contained a great bit of foreshadowing about Aemond’s future). As for Aemond himself, one of the most intriguing Targaryens in the Dance of the Dragons, I was pleasantly surprised that the series showed him getting bullied as a child. So far as I recall this isn’t something from the book, but I think it will add a lot of dimension to him as we see him grow up.

Of course, I can’t talk about “The Princess and the Queen” without proclaiming my love for Laena, Daemon, and their children. The scenes in Pentos were some of my favorites of the episode. This episode had possibly the most dragon scenes of any thus far, and Vhagar’s debut did not disappoint. Laena’s death was tragic, and it was great seeing Daemon in a different context as a family man. You knew the internet was going to rally around the fact that he’s offered the same C-section choice as Viserys and prioritizes Laena’s autonomy over having another child. Laena’s final entreaty to Vhagar made me tear up; the details on that dragon were so good as she tried to process what was being asked of her. What a great scene.

I’ll just end this ramble with two words: Larys Strong. What is his deal? Does he just want power and chaos and for Alicent to be in his debt? It’s nice to have a Littlefinger-type character reveal himself at this point in the season; that kind of cold-blooded scheming is something that I’ve missed.

Also, what’s with his little bug sigil? It looks a little like a honey bee to me — could he be setting up to frame Lyman Beesbury? I need to know more!

SABRINA: Y’all, I kind of feel like the Alicent whisperer right now, which is a weird position to be in since I’ve been mostly indifferent to her throughout the series so far even if I do find her intriguing (paradoxical, I know). But she made complete sense to me in “The Princess and the Queen.”

I mean here is this woman who was told by her father that duty comes before autonomy and agency. For herself, she’s seen that play out for the past 10 years, she married her best friend’s father for the sake of her family’s upward mobility and because she was left with little choice. Then you have Rhaenyra who’s doing her duty, yes, but who is also flagrantly violating the laws of marriage and succession in full view of king and country and is unapologetic about it.

Everyone knows Rhaenyra’s children aren’t Laenor’s by blood and that their biological father is Harwin Strong and yet no one will say anything. So you have Alicent watching child after child be born, and she’s expected to stay quiet about it because gods forbid Rhaenyra be held accountable for her behavior the way every other woman is. It’s driving Alicent up a wall because it flies in the face of everything she was told about how her gender moves through the world.

But the thing is, Rhaenyra’s treatment by her father is that of a prince of the realm. She’s his heir. Her place in the social hierarchy trumps her gender in ways Alicent will never be afforded regardless of the fact that she’s queen. That’s power. It’s holding on by a thread only because Viserys refuses to acknowledge what he knows to be true, but it’s power nonetheless and it’s a threat to Alicent’s understanding of the world she lives in because if it’s possible to defy the rules of their society then she did actually have a choice to marry Viserys and she chose wrong.

In any case, this was a serviceable episode and Laena stole the show for me when she took full control of how her story would end and chose how she would die. Have I talked about how much I love the women in this series? Because I really do love the women of House of the Dragon.

MICHAEL: As the “second pilot,” as Dan brilliantly calls it, I think “the Princess and the Queen” actually does a better job of introducing the second half of the season than “The Heirs of the Dragon” did the first. There was a lot to unpack here, and we are finally starting to see the future battle lines drawn.

The children’s sparring was a highlight and echoed the scene with Bran, Jon, Robb and Ned in the first episode of Game of Thrones. The addition of the children makes things more complex, which is a positive.

After enjoying both Milly Alcock and Emily Carey as Rhaenyra and Alicent, I was concerned that replacing them would be jarring, considering that characters like Viserys and Daemon weren’t being replaced. However, the show has worked hard to ensure that things don’t feel off, and Emma D’Arcy in particular was hugely convincing. How much she truly resembles an older Alcock in many scenes is spooky.

The biggest plus for me last week and this week is the ascension of Larys Strong. Littlefinger was always one of my favorite characters on Game of Thrones. If there’s plotting and scheming, I’m invested. I admit I always root for the villains, and I feel Strong has the potential to be an excellent one. Littlefinger meets Ramsay Bolton.

However, I hope the show doesn’t stray too much into clearly defined heroes and villains and maintains the shades of grey, as it has with Daemon. George R.R. Martin has always given us a much more realistic portrayal of human nature, which differentiates him from someone like J.R.R. Tolkien. In “the Princess and the Queen,” it was pretty clear who the villains were: Alicent, Criston Cole and Larys Strong. Their motivations and justification for immoral actions weren’t explained, so they just seem cruel or crazy.

One issue I had over the first five episodes was how much time we spent at King’s Landing. The varying locations always kept Game of Thrones fresh, and it was great to visit Pentos, if only briefly. Hopefully, as the characters begin to spread out over coming episodes, we’ll get a return to that continent-spanning epic feel that Game of Thrones had.

I think the biggest downside to the episode is what I consider the biggest downside to the show so far, and that’s that we seem to be rushing through things. I know Ariba mentions that she likes this, but it reminds me a lot of the later seasons of Game of Thrones.

I suspect the show wants to get to the death of Viserys for the season finale, but it does mean we’re missing significant character development. For example, the relationship between Daemon and Laena Velaryon could have been spread over a much more extended period. As Daniel says, these scenes were a delight and show a much different side to Daemon from the libertine of Flea Bottom. But how did we get here? It would have been interesting to find out.

As such, Laena’s death was shocking visually but had very little emotion attached for me. We barely knew Laena and really don’t know how we should feel about her passing.

Overall, I really liked this episode and think it was the most Game of Thrones-like episode of the season so far. It was strange as it was both a “second pilot” and midseason episode in one, but didn’t come across as trying too much or disjointed. One of the strongest episodes so far.

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