How to “fix” the back half of House of the Dragon season 1

A lot of big events seemed to happen by accident

The back half of House of the Dragon is definitely where most of the plot momentum is. However, the show started developing a weird habit. Some of the biggest plot developments happen not because the characters make choices and act on them — the cornerstone of good drama — but because events conspired to move things forward with a minimum of input from the people who are supposed to be driving this car. It was odd, especially for a show as bold as House of the Dragon.

History’s most cringeworthy coup

This really kicks into high gear in the final two episodes of the season. For example, in Episode 9, “The Green Council,” King Viserys Targaryen’s Small Council has to decide what to do now that the king has died. In George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, the characters go around the table offering their rationales for why they should seat Viserys’ son Aegon on the Iron Throne rather than his daughter Rhaenyra, who the king had publicly named as his heir. It’ll prevent a war, one argues. Men inherit before women under the law, says another. Crowning Rhaenyra queen means that Daemon will be king consort and Daemon is awful, says Otto Hightower. And so on.

It’s great because we get a sense that all of these people know what the right thing to do is — honor the king’s wishes by coronating his daughter — but none of them want to do it, so they convince themselves that going against what the king explicitly wanted is the best course of action. And then Lyman Beesbury points out that they’re all a bunch of traitors, and Criston Cole murders him to: A) quiet a voice of dissent, and; B) shut up the voices of conscience in their own heads. It’s a wonderfully messy emotional climax to the scene.

The show sheds all of this. Instead it zeroes in on Alicent Hightower, who argues that they should crown Aegon not because she doesn’t want to seat a bastard on the throne, not because she has any will to power herself, not for any of the reasons mentioned in the book, but because she misinterpreted her husband’s final rambling words as him naming a new heir on his deathbed. It’s a deeply unsatisfying flattening of Alicent’s character. Meanwhile, the other people in the room aren’t given motivations at all; it’s assumed they want to seat Aegon on the throne and that’s that.

As for Lyman Beesbury, Criston doesn’t even kill him on purpose; it plays more like an accident, with the kingsguard knight shoving the elderly Master of Coin a bit too hard onto one of those little marbles they all use to take roll call during small council meetings.

In the book, both Criston and Alicent make choices to do wrong. On the show, they make whoopsie-daisies. It’s way less compelling than it should be.

“The idea that we control the dragons is an illusion”

The other big “oops my bad” moment comes in the finale, when Aemond Targaryen confronts his nephew Lucerys Velaryon at Storm’s End. Luke slashed out Aemond’s eye when they were younger, and Aemond has not gotten over it. Luke, having failed in his diplomatic mission to the Baratheon home base, gets on his dragon Arrax and tries to fly home. Aemond mounts the much larger Vhagar and follows.

In Fire & Blood, we only know that Vhagar chomps Luke and Arrax to bits. On the show, we learn that neither Aemond nor Luke meant for this to happen, but that the dragons acted on their own, got into a fight, and this was the result.

How to fix this

Not all accidents are created equal. In isolation, I don’t mind the additions to the Luke-Aemond scene. Sure, painting Vhagar as the real aggressor robs Aemond of some of his agency, but it’s not like Aemond is completely blameless. He still tried to take Luke’s eye and then followed his young nephew into that storm on his huge, ornery dragon; what did he think was going to happen?

Also, the show set this up earlier in the season by having Viserys ruminate about the nature of dragons and their riders. “The idea that we control the dragons is an illusion,” Viserys says, and he’s right. House of the Dragon is a story about a family of people who convince themselves that they’re awesome, badass, infallible, worthy…but they’re wrong, and they end up tearing down their own dynasty as they chase their delusions of grandeur. What happens with Aemond and Lucerys fits with this. Aemond thinks he’s strong enough to control Vhagar, but he isn’t, and the Seven Kingdoms will pay for his hubris.

So I like the Aemond-Lucerys twist. But it’s still an example of a whoopsie-daisy subbing in for a choice, which wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t come after two similar whoopsie-daisies the episode prior. The Aemond-Luke fight can stay, but “The Green Council” needs a re-write.

Basically, I think the small council scene in Episode 9 should stick closer to the book, with everybody pitching their justifications for why crowning Aegon is a good idea, Lyman Beesbury calling them all out as traitors, Criston Cole murdering Lyman on purpose, and everyone swearing over his dead body to see this thing through come hell or high water. Alicent’s misinterpretation of Viserys’ final words should be in the mix — it could be the idea that gets this justification-fest going — but it shouldn’t be the only reason anyone suggests. These characters are richer, and deserve better, than that.