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

Man, House of the Dragon Episode 9 is badly written

Most of the problems in the back half of the season have to do with Episode 9. “The Green Council” starts on the wrong foot and never recovers. It’s the only episode in the season I think is straight-up bad, which is unfortunate since it comes at such a pivotal point for the story.

We’ve already gone over how the first small council scene eschews all of the most interesting conflicts from Fire & Blood. In their place, it forces a conflict between Otto Hightower, who wants to assassinate Rhaenyra in an attempt to head off a potential war before it begins, and his daughter Alicent, who doesn’t.

From the start, this rings false. The suggestion to attack Dragonstone is very hard to believe coming from Otto, because it’s such a stupid, hare-brained plan. Even if such a thing were possible — and given how easily defensible Dragonstone is, that’s far from certain — killing Rhaenyra is at least as likely to start a war as prevent one, something the methodical Otto should know. In the book, killing Rhaenrya is suggested…by the hot-headed, perpetually drunk Aegon, who is promptly talked out of it by the cooler heads in the room. By putting this argument in Otto’s mouth, the writers do a real disservice to a character who is supposed to be intelligent and careful.

So why did they do it? We can’t know for sure, but my guess is that they wanted to drive home a point about Alicent stepping out of Otto’s shadow. It’s not a bad point, but they should have let it arise naturally rather than ham-handedly forcing it in.

How to turn a high stakes race for the crown into a low stakes scuffle

After Alicent and Otto clash, each of them draft different members of the Kingsguard to go looking for Aegon, who is MIA. Mysaria has caught wind that the greens are looking for Aegon and hides the future king away, hoping to swap information on his location for assurances that the crown will address problems plaguing the poorer areas of the city, assurances she kinda-sorta gets from Otto. Later in the same episode, Larys Strong burns down Mysaria’s manse in an attempt to destroy her spy network, although it’s not made clear that it’s her house specifically that’s on fire.

Meanwhile, the twin Kingsguard knights Arryk and Erryk Cargyll — who are working on Otto’s behalf — find Aegon first, but it doesn’t matter, because Criston Cole and Aemond Targaryen — working on Alicent’s behalf — were hot on their trail. We get a very low stakes fight between the two parties, Team Alicent wins, and Aegon is taken back to the Red Keep.

This whole section of the episode feels like wasted time. The perspective we most need is Aegon’s — he is going to be crowned king and we want to know how he feels about that — but the script instead treats us to conversations between Aemond and Criston on the one hand, and Mysaria and Otto on the other. They’re background conversations that fill us in on their characters, which is nice, but they don’t feel urgent at a time when urgency is needed. The king is dead and these characters are in a race against time to crown Aegon before Rhaenyra can find out and react. That’s intense, so why does everything drag so much?

The bit where the dragon comes through the floor

The episode recovers slightly once the silly Aegon hunt is concluded; the best scene is a brief conversation between Aegon and Alicent on the way to his coronation where we actually get a sense of what these characters mean to each other. The coronation is also interesting as we see Aegon warm up to the idea of ruling. But the writers don’t trust this moment to work by itself, so they throw a wrench into the works.

Another subplot this episode involves Rhaenys Targaryen, who has been under lockdown in the Red Keep since Viserys’ death. Eventually, a mutinous Erryk Cargyll — who knows what a lout Aegon is and would prefer that Rhaenyra become queen — lets her out of her room. The two escape into the city. Rhaenys makes her way to Aegon’s coronation at the Dragonpit, steals beneath, mounts her dragon Meleys, burrows up through the floor, stares down the greens, and flies away.

This sequence is bad for a number of reasons. Let’s count them down:

1. Hypocritical framing. The episode portrays Rhaenys as both badass (she has cool armor, a cool dragon, and a bunch of hero shots) and merciful (she doesn’t kill the greens even though she could). But it pays no mind to the dozens (possibly hundreds) of innocent civilians she slaughters as she makes her entrance. At best, it sends a very mixed message to the audience, one that looks unintentional.
2. Obliterating tension. The most interesting thing about this stretch of the story is how no one wants to come off as the bad guy. If the greens kill Rhaenyra, they’ve drawn first blood and her supporters will feel justified in retaliating. If Rhaenyra and her blacks strike first, the greens will feel the same way. But bodies are flying left and right in Episode 9, from the unfortunate Lord Caswell to Rhaenys’ massacre in the Dragonpit. Luke’s death in Episode 10 is important because he’s the first person to die on the battlefield in this war, and every death in Episode 9 reduce its impact. (Also, for those who have read ahead, Rhaenys’ destruction of the Dragonpit takes some of the air out of another scene that will go down here later on.)
3. Improper focus. By the end of the season, Westeros has two crowned rulers: Rhaenyra Targaryen and her younger half-brother Aegon. But while Rhaenyra’s coronation in Episode 10 is given the space it needs to breathe — it’s a great scene — Aegon’s is interrupted by Rhaenys. Ultimately, Aegon’s coronation isn’t about Aegon at all, but about a character who will go on to support Rhaenyra. The show should be presenting both sides of this war in a way where viewers could plausibly favor one side, the other, both or neither; we should be fighting this war in our own minds as surely as the characters are fighting in on the screen. But scenes like this make it feel like House of the Dragon is really only writing about Aegon and his followers so it can get back to Rhaenyra and Daemon. That’s weak.
4. How did Rhaenys not hurt her head coming up out of the floor? Like, for real?

Okay, that last one is a nitpick but you get my point.

How to fix this

Episode 9 needs a thorough rewrite. The easiest and best solution is to stick closer to the source material. We’ve already talked about how to rewrite the small council scene. What to do about Rhaenyra shouldn’t even come up at this time, to say nothing about a forced conflict between Alicent and Otto over whether to kill her. Right now, the greens should be more or less on the same page: they need to find Aegon, crown Aegon, and they’ll figure out the rest later.

The main conflict should come from Aegon himself, who doesn’t want to be king. In the book, there’s a scene where Criston Cole finds Aegon outside the Red Keep and has to talk him into accepting the crown. Criston is only successful when he tells the prince that Rhaenyra will surely have him killed if she takes the throne, something we know Alicent told her son when he was younger, so he’s primed to believe it.

This conversation should be in the show. It would be great for both characters. Aegon would articulate good reasons why he shouldn’t be king (instead of just screaming in the streets as on the show) and Criston would bend the truth to change his mind, betraying his enduring anti-Rhaenyra bias. It would both tell us who these characters are and push the story forward.

And then there’s Rhaenys. I’m on board with Erryk Cargyll freeing her from her room and escaping the castle with her. But in this rewritten version of the episode, Rhaenys didn’t come here by dragon; Meleys is safe back on Dragonstone or Driftmark, so both she and Erryk have to flee King’s Landing by boat. That means she can’t murder a bunch of people at Aegon’ coronation, which is for the best.

Instead, Rhaenys should insist to Erryk that they steal Viserys’ crown, knowing that Rhaenyra will need a symbol of legitimacy if she hopes to win people over to her side. Remember: in the episode, Erryk sees Alicent put the crown on Viserys’ body, so he knows where it is. Also, Alicent could mention that they intend to crown Aegon with the Conqueror’s crown during her conversation with Rhaenys before her escape, so Rhaenyrs will know it’s just lying around somewhere. This could provide something important for Rhaenys to do other than ruin the climax.

As for Mysaria, this isn’t the time to slacken the pace of the story with a conversation about how she wants to put an end to child fight clubs, although I think she should be involved. My idea is for Daemon to visit her in Episode 8, after he beheads Vaemond but before the family dinner with Viserys. Daemon knows that his brother will soon die, suspects the greens will try to take the throne when he does, and wants Mysaria to use her spy network to keep him abreast of things. In return, he’ll get her a seat on Rhaenyra’s council when they take power. Mysaria agrees and spies on the greens throughout Episode 9. She’s able to get a message off to Dragonstone before Aegon’s coronation, alerting the blacks to what the greens intend earlier than they would otherwise find out.

Upon getting this message, Rhaenyra goes into premature labor, as she does in Episode 10 of the original show. Basically, I think the first act of Episode 10 should be copy-pasted into the end of Episode 9, which has space to fill now that we’ve cut out the stupid Aegon hunt and Dragonpit massacre. The rewritten episode should end with Aegon being coronated in the Dragonpit (sans interruption) and Rhaenyra being coronated on Dragonstone. The scenes can be cross-cut. Westeros has two rulers now: the game is on.

In Episode 10, as the greens wonder how Rhaenyra could have learned about their plans and crowned herself so quickly, Larys talks to Alicent about Mysaria, foot stuff happens, and Larys burns down Mysaria’s manse. We could even go inside the manse and watch Mysaria try to get out of this situation, which would be an improvement on Episode 9, where we’re not even sure that it’s her house on fire. I see no value in making Episode 9 all about the greens and Episode 10 all about the blacks, as the show does. Both sides are at war now; we want to see them react to each other.