Small Council: What did you think of House of the Dragon Episode 7?

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

DAN: Part of me thinks this is the best episode of House of the Dragon yet. The show spent a lot of time on prologue, showing us how these people came to begrudge each other, or how their ambitions divided them. I haven’t always been happy with how that rolled out, but I can’t deny that the room crackled with tension as everyone gathered to discuss Aemond’s eye. Alicent slapping Aegon for being lax, Aegon saying the quiet part out loud to Viserys, Alicent demanding the king take one of Luke’s eyes in repayment and then trying to do it her damn self when he refused…the great moments kept coming. I couldn’t look away.

One of the best things about this scene was how it had me sympathizing with Alicent, or if not sympathizing, at least understanding. And not just because her son lost an eye and she was understandably pissed; when she locked up with Rhaenyra, she started to vent her feelings openly, talking about how frustrated she’s been watching Rhaenyra flout convention all over court while she’s always played by the book, marrying an old man because her father told her to and spending her teenage years raising babies. I’m not in Alicent’s corner, but I do get where she’s coming from, which is hugely important. It means the coming war will be fought between two groups of human beings, rather than one group of heroes and another group of villains.

I also loved Aemond’s ride on Vhagar. If you left out everything that came before and after, this could have been something out of an edgier Disney movie: the young boy who meets his destiny by mounting the biggest and most powerful dragon in the world. It was thrilling! And the special effects were on another level. This is definitely the best dragon scene we’ve gotten on the show so far. Bring on the Vhagar Funko!

Then there was that ending, which I’m of a couple minds on. On the one hand, it’s nice that someone actually got to escape and have a chance at a normal life rather than dying brutally, as so often happens in this world. On the other, I have questions. Laenor was just willing to abandon his family like that? Corlys and Rhaenys were convinced by the suspiciously char-broiled corpse of their son? What happens to Laenor’s dragon Seasmoke now? I worry this choice raises questions the show won’t be able to answer later.

And I know that Laenor dies in the book, so I’m sure that was nettling me too. I’m very curious to hear what you all think of this one.

DANIEL: This was certainly one of the best episodes of the season for me as well, if not the best outright (“The King of the Narrow Sea” gives it a good run for its money). We’ve spent a lot of time setting up the conflict and the major players…but now it’s time for knives to come out, for dragons and their riders to pick sides, and for things to speed toward outright war. I was on the edge of my seat for pretty much the whole thing.

The writing and direction were on another level; so much was conveyed subtly or with quick glances. Vaemond Velaryon’s opening eulogy served as a backhanded dig at Rhaenyra’s children while Daemon cackled at the absurdity of it all; Daemon and King Viserys talking on the balcony, while Rhaenyra watched from across the crowd; Jacaerys trying to comfort his cousins Baela and Rhaena (now step-sisters) even as he questions why his own family isn’t at Harrenhal mourning Ser Harwin. It felt like every other scene was laden with deeper meanings. It was a great payoff to the meticulous build-up the show has had so far.

As for Aemond’s dragon ride and the subsequent showdown between Alicent and Rhaenyra in the Hall of Nine, I don’t have too much to say that Dan hasn’t already. They were easily some of the best scenes of the season. Despite the greens being framed as less sympathetic, I loved that Aemond’s first flight on Vhagar was treated as a magical moment. Vhagar is the only dragon left from Aegon’s Conquest, and Aemond…well, Aemond is a special rider. That’s all I’ll say, to avoid spoilers from Fire & Blood.

As for the big turn with Laenor, my initial gut reaction was that I loved it. When Rhaenyra first started laying out her plan to “kill” him, I worried that this was a liberty the show was taking that would make her way too dark too early in the story. The turn with Laenor surprised me, and it is nice to see someone on a Westeros show get to row off into the sunset. All that said, I do agree with Dan that it raises some logistical questions. I’ll be curious to see how the show addresses them, and whether we ever see Laenor again.

As a final note…I feel bad for Daemon and Rhaenyra’s kids. They all just lost parents, and here they are watching this (admittedly stunning) wedding and their remaining parents make out with each other. Those kids are gonna have issues.

SABRINA: What this episode made abundantly clear is that there is no room for childhood in this world. Even the skirmish between the kids is life and death…or eyes, in this case. Those babies went from brawling in the catacombs to wielding steel in a matter of minutes.

I mean, sure, there were layers to that fight. Baela and Rhaena were grieving their mother and then here comes their cousin stealing her dragon out from under them. Jace and Luke got involved because fists went flying. Aemond decided to escalate the situation by calling the princes bastards, and it really did look like he was about to kill his nephew with a rock, hence the face slashing. Pubescent savagery was on display and the adults weren’t much better.

The stand-off between this family of sniping social climbers and arrogant princes of the realm is hands down the best scene of the show for me so far. It truly felt like it was 2 a.m. and everyone was at their wits’ end. But, of course, the stakes were so high you could practically hear the sword being sharpened for someone’s beheading.

Tense doesn’t even begin to describe the back-and-forth between Rhaenyra and Alicent. There was even open acknowledgement that her son’s aren’t Laenor’s and nothing will be done about it because no one cares but Alicent. To quote Corlys, “History doesn’t remember blood. It remembers names.” I was screaming, it was so good.

Innocence went up in flames this episode. Sorry to these children. Not a single one of them went unscathed. And now Laenor’s “dead,” so the Velaryons must mourn once more and Rhaenyra and Daemon are married. I agree with Daniel, absolutely too much happened in a short amount of time for any of these kids to be well-adjusted.

This is the most excited I’ve been for the next episode all season. Fire and Blood are truly about to wreck so many lives. What a lovely way to burn.

MICHAEL: I agree that this was the best episode of House of the Dragon yet. At the start of the show, I didn’t feel the same way about it as I did about Game of Thrones, and for a few episodes, I felt a little let down and worried that House of the Dragon was never going to live up to what came before. However, as the relationships between the characters have developed, we’re starting to see those intricate webs that Game of Thrones did so well, with the intrigue and the “game of thrones” beginning to play out. Everything felt important.

The scene in the hall was possibly the best of the series so far and very reminiscent of the Game of Thrones scene when Arya is brought before King Robert and Ned after the fight with Joffrey. You could cut the tension with a knife, no pun intended. As Rhaenyra observes, Alicent’s true nature is now revealed before the court. It’ll be interesting to see if she is now suspected for the murder of the Stongs at Harrenhal, after Rhaenyra told Daemon she couldn’t believe Alicent capable of it earlier in the episode.

As Dan says, understanding the motivations behind the characters is important and something I mentioned last week. George R.R. Martin’s work is at its best when it revolves around characters who are neither good nor evil, but who have understandable motivations we can empathize with if we place ourselves in their shoes. While Rhaenyra is undoubtedly presented as the wounded party, she’s lying about her children’s parentage, so she isn’t innocent. But we can still sympathize with her position, knowing exactly what would happen if the truth were ever officially acknowledged.

Daemon was very quotable this episode. His insult to Otto Hightower was cutting: “no matter how fat the leech grows, it always wants for another meal.” His self-aware observation that Rhaenyra would need to be “more specific” when talking about his depravity was also genuinely funny. It’s easy to see Daemon almost in a Tyrion role as the black sheep of the ruling elite with a penchant for debauchery.

There were plenty of standout moments in the episode. The dragon ride is an obvious one, but the fight between the children was also well done. This will be crucial to the coming plot, just as the fight between Arya and Joffrey was on Game of Thrones. Ty Tennant stood out as young Aegon Targaryen, giving off a lot of Viserys Targaryen vibes (Game of Thrones version). Tennant is the adopted son of David Tennant and clearly has a bright future, and it’s a shame we won’t get more of the young princes.

Laenor’s departure, meanwhile, was well done and shows Rhaenyra genuinely cares for him. Equally, it shows that Daemon and Rhaenyra are likely to play a more devious campaign than one of outright brutality. That said, an innocent man was murdered to take Laenor’s place. I fear his survival may lead fans to wonder if he’ll come back. I don’t expect him to since he dies in the book.

Let’s just hope he isn’t rowing for three seasons like Gendry.

SAVANNAH: I agree with Dan and Daniel on this being one of the season’s best episodes. It is my favorite, surpassing “The King of the Narrow Sea.” Having all the characters together usually means turmoil, but we got two somewhat happy endings. Those poor children may feel otherwise, but the duo of Daemon and Rhaenyra was something we all wanted since that trip to the brothel.

Daemon continues to evolve as a character; he isn’t just the evil bad guy with a cool cloak. No, he has a soft side, but we also expect him to be wicked. His strategic statements remind me of Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones. Daemon sits back sometimes, and at other times he is downright impulsive. He may not be ugly, but he is the castaway, so he is House of the Dragon’s Tyrion. His laughing during the funeral of his second wife was just too good.

Alicent is the Cersei of this cast, and she is channeling that psychotic mother in the dagger scene. I love the line from Rhaenyra, “now they see you as you are.” That line, to me, was everything. Alicent has done things right while Rhaenyra has done whatever she wants, but wasn’t she the one who went into the king’s chambers right after his wife’s death? Wasn’t she the one that didn’t tell her best friend about it?

She doesn’t seem like a great mother — the whole thing where she grabbed Aegon’s face was just too aggressive. Meanwhile, Rhaenyra did her thing with Daemon but was still way more thoughtful about how she handled the children’s skirmish. In all honesty, I think Alicent is jealous of Rhaenyra as a mother.

Now to the children: none of them will ever be normal because of all this trauma. All I can say with my southern soul is, Bless their hearts.

The way Sabrina discusses that fight scene is too beautiful, so I’ll just say that I agree 1000% with her on it. Granted, I think Aemond deserved to lose an eye after being mean to the others and acting holier than thou because he finally got a dragon. It just happened to be the biggest of all the seven kingdoms.

Aemond and Vhager broke my heart because I wanted one of the girls to get her, but he had the guts to go out there and do his thing, so I respect that. That whole scene was beautiful, dark or not. The darkness didn’t bother me at all, and I actually liked Miguel Sapochnik’s creative choice because, to me, it was alluding to what will come. That darkness is the two sides dividing even more.

I’m glad Laenor didn’t die, and he rowed off into the sunset with Qarl, but at the same time, Dan mentioned Seasmoke, and now I’m worried about that dragon. What happens to it, and how dare Laenor leave them? I am an animal lover so when one gets its heart broken, It stings.

Overall, this episode gave me so many pearl-clutching moments while not killing off someone in a wedding, so it was truly a chef kiss. I love the twists and turns — hopefully, the last three episodes will be even more jaw dropping.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels